


Bleed Just To Know You're Alive

by yuhaholic



Category: PRISTIN (Band)
Genre: 90s au isnt a tag tho smh, F/F, Horror, a good amount of other people dispersed throughout but they're pretty minor, also heavily heavily inspired by stephen king's It and Stranger Things, also takes place in 1998, heavily heavily implied 2won but it's never explicitly Established, lov me some freaky small town shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 08:59:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 24,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12701625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuhaholic/pseuds/yuhaholic
Summary: tall, tan horseteeth, lesbian hypochondriac, homeschooled freak, two-dollar whore, beautiful new girl + a spooky cottage in a haunted forest = a disaster





	1. hurry boy she's waiting there for you

**Author's Note:**

> woohoo i love horror stories, creepy crawly shit really gets my willy wiggling  
> rated teens and up because it's kinda spooky so like Watch Out  
> work title from iris by the goo goo dolls  
> chapter title from africa by toto

“I’m scared,” Yewon tells her a week after they finished tenth grade. They’re sitting on the roof of her house, watching as the sun slips past the horizon, hands intertwined where they lie on the dirty shingles. It’s June but it’s not so hot. It never really gets that hot where they live. “There’s nowhere else I can go. I don’t know what to do.”

She doesn’t know what to say. She never does in these situations. The first time Yewon had come to her like this, her clothes were ripped, bruises scattered her skin, and she wasn’t crying. All Kyungwon could do was hold her, not trusting her mouth enough to let herself speak.

So she squeezes Yewon’s hand and doesn’t take her eyes off of the sunset. “You will always be safe here,” she says quietly. “I will never let anyone hurt you.”

Yewon refuses to let the tears fall as she musters up the energy to give a sad smile. She pulls her knees up to her chest and sniffles quietly, rubbing her free hand against her dripping nose. “It’s okay, Kyungwon.”

And at this moment, Kyungwon realizes that she will never know. She will never know what Yewon knows. She will never feel what Yewon feels. There will come a time where she will not be able to protect Yewon and she will never forgive herself.

A flock of birds lift out of the tree across the street, circling in the sky before flying off into the park behind them. A gust of wind pushes through Kyungwon’s hair and she can smell the salty marinade from the barbecue down the street.

Their world is so small, Kyungwon realizes, but there are so many things about it that she doesn’t understand. She doesn’t understand why Yewon’s father does this to her. She doesn’t understand why there are no explanations available for her. She doesn’t understand why time moves so quickly, barely granting a second to stop and look around. The world spins, untethered from rhyme and reason, and Kyungwon can’t control that. Kyungwon can’t control anything.

She brings Yewon’s hand to her lips and kisses the bruise on her wrist, savoring the short moment of serendipity that they managed to share. Maybe, Kyungwon thinks, she can find a way to stay by Yewon’s side forever. She can gaze as far into the future as she’d like, but she cannot imagine herself without Yewon. And maybe, she thinks, she won’t have to.

“No, it’s not.” She takes a deep breath and shakes her head, any other words she had planned on saying falling between them and rolling down to the front lawn.

Yewon reaches bloody fingers up to caress Kyungwon’s cheek lightly. “I know.”

Kyungwon closes her eyes, squeezing Yewon’s hand so hard she thinks that she must be leaving bruises there herself.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers.

 

Three days later, Kyungwon is not at all ready when Minkyung throws pebbles at her window. It’s late at night and moonlight is beaming in through the blinds. She looks down to see her three friends standing on the sidewalk. Minkyung stands tall, her leather jacket hanging off her shoulders, long pale legs stretching out under her. Yebin’s arms are crossed over her chest, her hair pulled out of her face with a bright red scrunchie and her limp backpack hanging off one shoulder. And Yewon waits behind them, clad in long sleeves and jeans with a grin spread across her face.

Kyungwon slides her window open to squint down at them. “What in God’s name do you idiots think you’re doing?”

“Oh, I’m just here to nail your mom and eat your ice cream,” Yebin calls up dryly. The sarcasm dripping off of her voice could almost be toxic and she snorts when Kyungwon glares at her. “We’re going on an adventure, dumbass, get down here.”

Yewon shushes Yebin, reminding her that there are people trying to sleep, and Kyungwon can’t help but smile at the familiarity of it all. “Guys, you know, I really can’t,” she says regretfully. “My mom took away my bike after she caught me sneaking out last time. She’s going to have a brain aneurysm if she finds out.”

“You got your bike taken away by your mom?” Yebin snarks. “What are you, twelve?”

Kyungwon glares down. “Yeah, your sister said I was a twelve out of ten last night when I fucked her.”

“Oh, wow, real mature, Kyungwon,” Yebin snaps, her eyes narrowing.

“Thanks, I have a naturally high aptitude,” Kyungwon shoots back. “I’m not going on a dumb adventure with you, okay? My mom is going to kill me.”

“I guess we’ll just ask your new neighbor girl to join us then,” Minkyung says, juggling the pebbles in her hands. “I’m sure she’s ready for a midnight adventure.”

Before Minkyung can make another move, Kyungwon is grabbing her shoes and a jacket and climbing out her window. Yebin lets out a quiet but encouraging whoop as Kyungwon lowers herself from the roof to the planters on the side of the house.

“I can’t believe you guys are making me do this,” she mutters.

Yewon grins, leaning back on her bicycle with casual ease. “You’d do anything as long as it gives you a good adrenaline rush,” she points out. “Come on, you can climb on the back of my bike, just hold tight onto my shoulders.”

“Where are we going?” Kyungwon asks, doing as Yewon told her. “I hope it’s not another one of Minkyung’s little adventures. My mom will actually murder me if she has to pick me up from the police station again.”

Minkyung only laughs as she pushes back the kickstand of her bike with her heel. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to get caught this time,” she assures her. “Yebin picked out the place this time. She says no one else even knows about it.”

“Well, gee golly, I sure have faith in what Yebin says,” Kyungwon drawls.

Just as they’re about to head off, Yebin screeches to a halt and the rest of them turn to hush her but she waves them off frantically. Kyungwon follows her gaze to the house directly across the street from hers. There, on the porch, is dark hair tucked under a baseball cap and a brightly colored windbreaker and her stomach drops.

“Hi. You’re Nayoung, right? You just moved in a couple months ago?” Yewon’s soft voice cuts through the silence and falls somewhere in the air between them. There’s no response and she gulps, glancing back at Kyungwon, who just shrugs. “Please don’t tell your parents.”

Nayoung just stares at them, her expression unreadable. “What are you doing?” she asks eventually, her voice strong and clear. “It’s, like, two in the morning.”

“We’re going on an adventure.” Yebin says this as monotonously as she can, insinuating that it’s not a joke in the slightest. When Nayoung’s expression becomes even more incredulous, she raises her eyebrows. “Do you want to come?”

“It is two in the morning,” Nayoung repeats, her tone just as flat.

Minkyung rests her forearms on the handlebars of her bike. “Look, we need to go. You can come with us or you can stay, but don’t keep us waiting.”

Nayoung opens her mouth to say something but Yebin waves her off. “Get on the back of my bike. Let’s go.”

Kyungwon leans down on Yewon’s shoulders. “We’re sixteen. Should we have a car by now?”

“What, and defeat our aesthetic of being teens in a small town, hunting down mysteries and monsters? I don’t think so,” Yewon says, cracking a smile. “And Yebin failed the driving test twice, so she can’t go in to take it again for a month or two.”

“Our friends are useless.” They watch as Nayoung attempts to balance herself on the spikes of Yebin’s back wheel, making very little progress. “We should run off together. We could make it, you know, just the two of us.”

Yewon laughs a little. “I know we could, but I don’t want to. I love them and I know you do too.”

 

“Everyone always says shit about staying out of the forest, it’s dangerous and haunted and stuff like that,” Yebin is saying, cruising down the wide streets that lead to the edge of town. The other girls are on either side of her and Nayoung is clutching her shoulders like she might die if she lets go. “But, as you all know, I don’t actually care if I live or die, so the other day, I just went in, and you know how there are always little, like, thirteen year old boys hanging around doing dumb shit? There were none that day, which, in retrospect, was weird, but anyways, I found this weird little cottage thing, old and broken down and moldy and shit, and there was a rusty old ‘keep out’ sign on the door, which is a pretty clear indicator that it must have been a little secret hide out hang out place for some of the dipshit boys for some amount of time at one point.”

“Okay, but why would you go into a gross old house that had a ‘keep out’ sign? Are you serious?” Yewon asks incredulously. “You’re basically asking for death.”

“I’m not smart, sunshine,” Yebin says casually. “And I have always wanted to get into adolescent summer hijinks, so that’s why I went into a gross old house that had a ‘keep out’ sign.”

They reach Lightbreak Bridge, the barrier that connects their town to the rest of the world. On one side of the bridge, you’re in Little Grave Lights. Take fifteen steps across, and you’re in God’s hands. Various foot trodden paths lead down to a gushing river and a heavily tree populated forest spreads out for miles. The girls all get off their bikes, Yewon the only one bothering to set hers up on its kickstand, and peer down over the railing.

“I’m not so thrilled about going into the woods,” Nayoung says hesitantly. She tugs her windbreaker tighter around herself. “It’s dark and it’s easy to trip on things and animals are always crawling around all creepy-like. This is a new jacket and I’m wearing pajama pants.”

Yebin takes her backpack off and sets it on the railing to open it up. “Don’t worry, daddy long legs, I packed a heck load of flashlights. I also have a first aid kit, just in case you get hurt, and you can just bang some sticks to keep the creepy crawlers away.”

She tosses a flashlight to each of the girls. Kyungwon taps hers against the railing a couple times before it turns on.

“These are fucked,” she remarks. “They’re going to die on us and then we’re going to get fucked up, and we all know your first aid kit is filled with cheese puffs.”

Yebin snatches the flashlight back. “It’s not filled with cheese puffs. It’s got my inhaler, Neosporin, and some bandaids. The cheese puffs are in a ziploc bag.”

“Don’t you think your backpack is a bit too bulky?” Minkyung asks, watching as Yebin rummages through it. “I’m just going to  get you a fanny pack. Or a utility belt.”

“Bitch, one thing you will not catch me doing is wearing a fucking utility belt,” Yebin scoffs. “Out here looking like fucking Batman.”

“Are we going to just stand here arguing for the whole night or are you going to take us to your creepy old house?” Yewon interrupts softly. She has her flashlight on and she’s staring down the hill. “Where even is it?”

Yebin hops over the railing and the rest of the girls follow her. “It’s not so far from here. You know the huge tree right on the edge of the river? It’s a couple meters in from there.”

“On this side, right?” Nayoung rests her hand on a tree so she won’t slip. “I’m not trying to go across the river. These shoes are new too.”

“Yeah, it’s on this side,” Yebin says, smiling slightly. “Quit worrying.”

Yewon reaches out to grab Kyungwon’s hand and their fingers immediately lace together. There’s some sort of security in that, being able to hold someone’s hand, to know that you’re safe with them no matter what. Even with the flashlights, it’s still hard to see where their feet are going to land, birds are hooting up in their branches, followed by the leaves crunching underfoot, but Kyungwon isn’t worried as long as she has Yewon.

They get to a certain point, the huge tree right on the edge of the river is right in their line of view, and Minkyung stops.

“Hey, you alright?” Nayoung asks. She shines her light in Minkyung’s face. “What’s wrong?”

There’s obvious tension that they can all feel but none of them want to address it. Yewon tightens her grip on Kyungwon’s hand. Minkyung just keeps staring ahead, like she’s seeing something that they can’t.

Eventually, she snaps out of it and blinks blankly at Nayoung. “Nothing. I’m fine. Let’s go.”

Yebin gives Kyungwon a look before trekking on. It’s a look that means ‘don’t let her go.’ Maybe if they knew anything about Minkyung, they would have understood why she was hesitant to continue, but they don’t. They don’t know anything about her, her home life, what her life was like before she met them. There’s nothing on the table, just her name, her personality, and her bike. She zones out sometimes and they lose her for a bit and Kyungwon is determined to not let that happen tonight.

Yewon nearly trips a couple times as they make their way down, but Kyungwon is always there to catch her. Yebin is rattling off about something or other and Minkyung and Nayoung occasionally cut in to tell her to shut up.

“I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but this isn’t it,” Kyungwon says when they come to a stop. The cottage is definitely small, maybe a couple rooms. It’s made out of thin wood and there are plants growing all over it. As promised, there is a sign nailed to the door that has the words ‘KEEP OUT’ emblazoned on it in bright red letters.

“This is like an old found footage movie,” Yewon remarks. She looks around the side of the cottage. “Like one of those shows where people go into old haunted houses with night vision cameras and yell at walls.”

“Oh, man, you mean like Kyungwon’s mom last April?” Yebin snorts. "Thought your house was haunted, straight up was about to call a priest to cleanse it. She talked to my mom about how to improve the feng shui of your house for, like, a million years."

“Shut up, she heard footsteps in the attic, the house keys went missing, furniture was rearranging itself during the night,” Kyungwon snaps. “You want to tell me that’s not a ghost?”

“That’s just your brother being an ass,” Yebin says.

“What exactly did you bring us here to do?” Minkyung asks, cutting into the argument before it gets too heated. “Like, are we going to go inside? I don’t really want to go inside.”

“I didn’t join you losers in this dumb adventure to not go inside,” Nayoung states. Kyungwon stammers out a protest but Nayoung ignores her, looking to Yebin instead. “Anything I need to know before I go in?”

Yebin grins. “Yeah, I’m not into biting -”

“Let’s not do that, Yebin,” Yewon says.

Nayoung walks confidently up to the door and kicks it in before stepping inside. The other girls look at each other before following her.

“Holy shit,” Minkyung mutters. “Is that blood?”

Nayoung nudges a pile of clothing with her foot, squinting at it. “When I asked if there was anything I needed to know, that included a trail of bloody clothing leading out the back.”

“I would have told you if sunshine here hadn’t cut me off,” Yebin says.

“You were being gross,” Yewon says in her defense.

Kyungwon crouches down and grabs a stick to poke at the clothing with. “This is so scary.”

“Guys, what the fuck is that?” Minkyung’s voice wobbles and they all follow her beam of light to a huge graphic painted onto the wall.

Nayoung takes a step closer. “It’s a huge fucking ouija board.”

“On the wall? That’s dope as hell,” Yebin says. “That was not there the other day.”

Yewon looks at her with wide eyes. “You mean someone came here and drew that within the past few days? Someone has been coming here?”

“Precisely, my dear girl,” Yebin replies, putting a hand on Yewon’s shoulder. “We have some fishy business happening here.”

Kyungwon gets to her feet and narrows her eyes at the ouija painting. When she moves her light to shine on it with Minkyung’s, the light warps.

“Oh, oh my god, guys.” She grabs Yewon’s arm. “What the fuck?”

Nayoung quickly shuffles back to stand with Minkyung. “Is that a planchette?”

“What’s a planchette?” Yewon asks.

“The little piece that you put your fingers on that moves,” Minkyung answers. “How is it there?”

Wherever Kyungwon moves her flashlight, the planchette shadow follows. “What are we supposed to do with this?”

“We have to fucking - we have to leave!” Yebin exclaims, backing away. “That’s a fucking spirit board on a wall, I don’t want to fuck with that!”

“You’re the one that brought us here in the first place,” Minkyung snaps.

“Yeah, for an adventure, not to unleash a fucking demon!” Yebin insists. She pulls on Minkyung’s arm desperately. “We live in a small town in Maine, that’s already enough to make our lives a fucking Stephen King novel, I am not about to make it worse!”

Nayoung frowns at the board. “Kyungwon, turn off your flashlight.”

“What?”

“Turn it off.” Nayoung grabs the flashlight from Kyungwon’s hand and switches it off. The planchette shadow remains on the wall. “Okay, fuck this, I’m with Yebin.”

Minkyung remains staring at the wall while the rest of the girls turn to leave. “Wait, don’t go.”

“Minkyung, please, I’m scared,” Yewon pleads.

Then, just like that, the door slams closed. Yebin screams and pulls Nayoung towards her. Kyungwon flinches and squeezes Yewon’s hand. Minkyung doesn’t move.

“I don’t think it wants us to leave,” she says.

Yebin lets out an exasperated breath. “It? What the fuck is it, Minkyung?”

“The spirit or whatever. It wants to talk to us, I think it wants to tell us something,” Minkyung continues.

“I don’t want to hear it, though,” Nayoung snaps. “I want to leave.”

“Well, you can’t.” Minkyung looks at them. “I don’t know about you, but I have a feeling that door isn’t going to open anytime soon. What the hell else are we supposed to do?”

“Break it down,” Nayoung says. Yebin cowers behind her, looking between the two with premonition. “It’s summer. We’re teenage girls, we should be having a movie night or stargazing, not fucking with a ouija wall.”

“Stop!” Yewon’s sudden outburst shocks all of them. She glares at Minkyung. “It’s moving.”

Minkyung stumbles back to stand beside Kyungwon. The shadow planchette is slowly making its way across the wall.

“Yebin, give me your backpack,” Minkyung says. “Kyungwon, hold my flashlight.”

Kyungwon keeps the flashlight pointed at the wall while Minkyung pulls out a pen and an old receipt from Yebin’s backpack.

“Why is it doing that?” Yebin asks, close to crying. “Oh my god, what the fuck?”

Minkyung holds the receipt against her hand, looking up to to watch where the planchette goes.

“This is a long ass message,” Nayoung remarks cautiously. “What has it said so far?”

“‘The wild do,’” Minkyung mutters. “Doesn’t make any sense, but it’s not done yet.”

They stand in relative silence while the planchette keeps moving. Yebin holds onto Nayoung’s arm, biting her lip to keep from whimpering. Yewon keeps a brave face but she’s close to crushing Kyungwon’s hand. Nayoung stands steady and tall, the only one that seems more angry than scared.

“‘The wild dogs cry out in the night,’” Minkyung says finally. She takes the flashlight back from Kyungwon and passes Yebin’s backpack back to her. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means we should leave,” Yebin whines. “Come on, we haven’t even tried the door yet, maybe it was just the wind.”

“I agree. It made its point, we can leave now, right?” Kyungwon says.

“We have to say goodbye first,” Yewon tells them. “So the spirit goes back to sleep or whatever.”

Minkyung holds her hand out and Kyungwon gives her her flashlight. She moves the planchette to goodbye and then switches it off. “I guess we go now.”

Nayoung is the one to open the door and they all rush to get out. Yebin lets out a deep breath and leans against a tree, pressing a hand to her chest.

“I thought I was going to die,” she says. “Holy shit.”

Minkyung pats her shoulder. “I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Nayoung leads them on their way back, her feet falling heavy on the dirt. “That was the dumbest thing I have ever done in my life. What if we’re haunted now? I moved here two months ago and now I’m going to die.”

“I just want to get out of here,” Yewon says, shivering. “I need a shower. I feel like I have cooties.”

“Cooties - have you been sleeping with Kyungwon’s mom too?” Yebin asks, pretending to be hurt. “God damn it, I thought we had something special.”

“You thought you were going to die, like, two seconds ago, why are you back on the mom jokes?” Kyungwon complains. “Just shut up.”

“The grind never stops,” Yebin says solemnly.

Kyungwon lets out a pained sigh. “I regret meeting you so much.”

 

“And did you know that this town was once home to an Indian tribe?” Yebin can’t stop rambling. “We could get massacred by freaking Indian ghosts. Have you guys seen _Poltergeist_ ? All the houses in _Poltergeist_ were built on top of an Indian burial site. I’m not trying to get sucked into a fucking television. Also, a fucking spirit board? This isn’t some helpful _Charmed_ spirit board, it’s some _Witchboard_ shit. We’re going to die. We’re going to die! And I haven’t even fucked Kyungwon’s dad yet. Actually, you know what, this is like Stephen King’s _It_ . Stephen King! I already told you guys that we live in Maine! And we just found a haunted fucking cottage. Remember what happened in _It_ , have you guys ever seen _It_? Tim Curry murders a fuck ton of kids. He fucking ate them, he ate a bunch of kids! We’re going to get murdered and eaten by Tim fucking Curry!”

“Yebin, shut the fuck up!” Minkyung snaps. “We’re not going to get murdered by whoever this Tim Curry is and your references make no sense because I don’t know what any of that shit is. Just shut up.”

Kyungwon tightens her grip on Yewon’s shoulders when the bike wobbles a bit. “Also, stop trying to have sex with my parents.”

“Tell them to stop being so hot,” Yebin shoots back.

“I will knock you out,” Nayoung says flatly. “I’m going to knock you out and you’re going to fall off your bike, and you know what I’m going to do next? I’m going to steal it.”

“Watch your fucking mouth, I could throw you off just by braking too fast,” Yebin scoffs.

“Why do you guys cuss so much?” Yewon asks. “Don’t you ever get tired of being disrespectful to your parents?”

“I literally never get tired of disrespecting my parents,” Yebin says. “My mom might slap me, but the pain just turns me on even more.”

“Okay, it’s worse when you talk about having sex with your own parents,” Minkyung groans. “Just keep fucking Kyungwon’s mom.”

Kyungwon frowns. “No. Stop. Don’t do that.”

“That’s not what your mom was saying last -”

“Shut up, Yebin!”

Yebin snickers and barely avoids a smack from Nayoung.

“Hey, is anyone up for going to the library tomorrow?” Minkyung pipes up casually.

“It’s summer, why would anyone go to the library?” Yebin says. “Hell fucking no.”

“Why do you want to go to the library anyways?” Yewon asks. “You got summer homework or something?”

Minkyng shakes her head. “I never have homework. I want to use the computers to look up the message from the ouija wall.”

“No, dude, we are not going to continue with that shit,” Kyungwon says. She doesn’t understand why Minkyung is so hellbent on doing this. They’re all scared shitless. None of them want to keep going. What does Minkyung know that they don’t? “I am not welcoming evil spirits into my life.”

“Who says it’s evil?” Minkyung counters. “Maybe it’s just trying to ask for help. If I was an unrest spirit, I would want to be helped. We can’t just leave it.”

“You think that maybe there weren’t any thirteen year old boys around that day Yebin found it because the spirit had killed them all and kept their bloody clothing in its cottage?” Nayoung points out. It’s obvious that Nayoung is the main offender. She doesn’t want to continue and she has a solid point. She’s done. “I find it hard to believe that it’s just some benign spirit.”

Yebin whines and almost falls off of her bike. “Oh my god.”

“I don’t see any ‘missing kid’ posters,” Minkyung says. “No bodies have been found. Maybe the clothes have nothing to do with the spirit.”

“Then why the hell were they in the cottage?” Kyungwon chimes in, leaning forward over Yewon. “Who drew the ouija wall? How can you not believe this thing is evil?”

“You don’t have to come with me,” Minkyung tells them flatly. She’s apathetic. She’ll do it whether or not they go along. “But I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

Kyungwon sighs and rests her head on Yewon’s. “What do we do?” she whispers.

“I don’t want her to do this alone,” Yewon whispers back. “We have to do it with her.”

“This is dangerous,” Kyungwon argues. “I can’t let you - I won’t put you in danger like this.”

“I don’t need you to protect me.” Yewon’s voice is trying to be angry but she can’t muster up the strength.

Kyungwon sighs. “I know.”

“I’ll go to the library with you,” Yebin says, cutting through the tense silence. She huffs our a nervous laugh. “You didn’t really think I’d let you do some dumb shit without me?”

Minkyung’s soft smile speaks more than any words could ever. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

 

Yewon pulls up in front of Kyungwon’s house. Yebin and Nayoung are bickering across the street and Minkyung already left them to go home.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Kyungwon says, holding her hand over Yewon’s on the handlebar.

Yewon nods, looking at the ground. “Yeah.”

Yebin says something loudly and Nayoung yells at her.

“What?” Kyungwon says. She ducks to look Yewon in the eye. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m scared,” Yewon admits. “I don’t want to go home.”

Kyungwon looks over her shoulder at her house and then turns back to Yewon. “You don’t have to. You can stay here for the night.”

“If my dad finds out I wasn’t at home, he’ll kill me,” Yewon says regretfully. “I have to go.”

Yebin calls out a goodbye and Nayoung slams her door closed.

Kyungwon rugs on Yewon’s hand. “Come on. I won’t let that happen. Just stay. For me.”

Yewon sighs and pushes down the kickstand on her bike. “Okay.”

“Oh, what the fuck, you’re having a sleepover without me?” Yebin yells from across the street. “You’re really about to make me go home by myself? Right after we unleashed a demon? This is always how they die in movies, when they’re alone.”

“Shut up, Yebin,” Yewon calls back. “Go home.”

Kyungwon laughs. “The sun is coming up anyways. Be careful. We’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, yeah. Kyungwon, tell your mom she can call me anytime she wants -”

“Go home, Yebin!”

Yebin rides back down the street and Kyungwon helps Yewon climb up the side of the house to her window. When they get inside, Kyungwon puts the screen back in and closes the window. Yewon is already sitting on the bed, hugging a teddy bear to her chest. Kyungwon sits down next to her.

“Do you think Nayoung is right?” Yewon asks. “Do you think we’re in danger?”

Kyungwon shrugs. “Maybe. I want to believe Minkyung, but Nayoung’s got a strong argument.”

Yewon rests her head on Kyungwon’s shoulder. “I don’t want to get hurt. If there’s a demon, we could face a fate worse than death. I don’t want my life to become a Stephen King novel.”

“Don’t let Yebin get to you,” Kyungwon says. She wraps an arm around Yewon’s shoulders. “She’s dumb, okay? I’m not going to let anything happen to you, or anyone else, for that matter.”

“Okay.”

Yewon grabs Kyungwon’s hand, intertwining their fingers. The moonlight is shining through the window, casting a shadow of a grid onto the floor. The only sounds are the chirping of crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl.

They remain like that for a while, connected in body and soul. Kyungwon doesn’t want to talk about the ouija wall, doesn’t even want to think about it, but if it’ll help Yewon, she’ll do it. She would do anything for Yewon. Yewon falls asleep eventually, her head pressed awkwardly against Kyungwon’s upper arm. Kyungwon maneuvers her so that they’re lying down.

The first time Yewon slept over, they were both six years old and Kyungwon’s mom made her sleep on a mat on the floor so Yewon could sleep on the bed. When they were twelve, they just slept in the living room on the couches so no one would have to sleep on the floor. Now that they’re sixteen, they just share the bed.

Yewon starts to snore softly and Kyungwon stares at the ceiling. Maybe, she thinks, the spirit isn’t bad. Maybe Minkyung is right. Maybe the spirit came to them for help and maybe it could help them too.

Maybe it could help Yewon.

When Kyungwon was younger, her parents forced her to go to church. There’s a special Korean service because of the oddly large Korean population in Little Grave Lights. Their church is old school Catholic. The priest doesn’t try to relate to the kids, he just says what he needs to say. In the later half of every service, they’re given time to kneel in the pews and pray. Kyungwon used to pray for her health, good fortune, and a happy life. She always reserved a bit of time at the end to pray for Yewon. She wanted them to stay together forever even when she was only six.

Kyungwon hasn’t gone to church in a while. They only go on Christmas and Easter. But, even though there is no longer a designated time to pray, Kyungwon makes sure that she does everyday. And she makes sure that Yewon is always a part of her prayers.

There was never a time when they were not together and Kyungwon prays that there will never come a time when they will. It’s been them for longer than the world’s been spinning, them and Yebin, them and Yebin and Minkyung, now them and Yebin and Minkyung and Nayoung.

This spirit thing, demon, whatever it is, if it tries to break them apart, Kyungwon isn’t sure what she’ll do. She can’t live without Yewon and she can’t live without Yebin or Minkyung but she knows that they can live without her. She could disappear and the world would go on without her.

 

“Are you serious?” Kyungwon flicks through catalogue cards aimlessly. The library has fans set up in every corner, but body heat and the concentrated light makes it just as hot as it is outside. “You couldn’t make any connections at all?”

Minkyung plops on the carpeted ground. “It’s an obscure fucking phrase, Kyungwon.”

“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” Yebin asks. She bites at a lollipop idly, leaning her shoulder against the cabinet. “Go door to door and ask people if they know what it means? ‘Hey, Mr. Hapstein, the wild dogs cry out in the night. Does that ring a bell for you?’”

Yewon rounds the corner with a book in her hands. “Anything just about wild dogs? Maybe dogs with rabies.”

“Yeah, sure.” Yebin puts the lollipop in her mouth and grabs the book from Yewon. “What is this shit?”

“I was bored and it looked interesting,” Yewon says, snatching it back.

“Why are you even trying to read?” Yebin asks.

Yewon rolls her eyes. “Just because you don’t know how to read doesn't mean -”

“Guys. What if it’s a line from a poem?” Kyungwon suggests. She tiredly puts the catalogue cards back to where they belong and steps back from the cabinet. “Ask the librarian. Maybe it’s some old people shit that the internet doesn’t know yet.”

“That’s some fucked up old people shit,” Yebin snickers. “What are the wild dogs? Kyungwon’s mom?”

Kyungwon smacks Yebin and Minkyung sighs, pushing herself to stand up. “Can you guys be quiet? We’re in a library.”

“Hey, remember that one old French musical?” Yewon says. “ _Les Miserables_?”

“The fuck is that?” Yebin mumbles out around her lollipop.

Kyungwon gives her a look. “An old French musical, you dingus. Do you ever listen?”

“Absolutely not,” Yebin states. She turns back to Yewon. “You may go on, sunshine.”

“The girl who dies sings a song that says something like the tigers come out at night,” Yewon continues. “Our line says that the dogs cry out in the night. What if that’s what it means?”

Minkyung narrows her eyes at that. “And what exactly does that mean?”

“Oh, heck if I know.” Yewon opens her book. “I’m not the smart one here, that’s for you to go after.”

Yebin snorts. “Thanks for that.”

Kyungwon snaps her fingers and points at Minkyung. “What if it’s from a song?”

“Maybe,” Minkyung says, shrugging. “It would take forever to find out, though. We can’t just sit around listening to the radio and waiting for matching lyrics to come up.”

“Oh! I got it!” Yebin raises her hand excitedly. “Let’s go to the CD store. They always have lyrics in those little pamphlet things in the cover.”

Kyungwon glares at her. “You are not taking me to the CD store, Yebin.”

“Whatever. Minkyung and I can go in,” Yebin says idly. “You and Sunshine can go get some ice cream or something.”

Yebin grabs Minkyung’s arm and drags her towards the door. Kyungwon groans and lets Yewon pull her along after them.

Summer in Maine, Yebin informs them, is nothing compared to the summers she used to experience when she lived in California before this.

“It’s barely eighty degrees,” she says, casually pulling her hair up into a ponytail. “You guys are fucking weak.”

“Yeah, you’re probably used to the heat because you’re from Hell yourself,” Kyungwon snaps. She drags her flip flops along the concrete sidewalk slowly. “Little miss ‘I complain when temperatures drop below sixty.’”

Minkyung laughs and Yebin hits her.

In Little Grave Lights, all of the amenities anyone needs can be found in one part of town, so the trek from the library to the CD store isn’t too long. Anyone they pass by gives them a polite greeting and they respond in a likewise manner.

“The rest of the teens are up at the drop off,” Mr. Keats informs them as he sticks a doorstop under his door to advertise that his store is open. “Where are you all off to?”

“Going to the CD store.” Yewon stops to talk to him and Kyungwon waits for her. “There’s a new Destiny’s Child album that I’ve been dying to listen to.”

Mr. Keats chuckles in a fatherly manner, like an old man who doesn’t understand his kids but doesn’t mind the progress. “Be sure to tell your father that his prescriptions are ready.”

“Of course. See you later, Mr. Keats.” Yewon takes Kyungwon’s hand and they continue after Yebin and Minkyung, who are already opening the door to the CD store.

The CD store slowly became a staple part of town when compact discs had their booming revolution. It’s a popular hang out spot for teenagers and, while business is sometimes slow, it’s steady. A bell rings when they walk in and the employee at the desk gives them a half nod.

“I guess we should just go alphabetically,” Minkyung suggests, looking at the rows and rows of CD’s. “It’s the most efficient way to check.”

Yebin bites on her lollipop, cracking it in half. “Oh, God fucking loves me. Look who scored a summer job here.”

Kyungwon follows her gaze to see the tall, tan back of none other than Nayoung herself. There are bulky headphones covering her ears while she files CD’s in the movie soundtrack section. Yewon winces when she sees Yebin’s grin.

“She doesn’t want to get involved, just leave her alone,” Minkyung hisses. She tries to grab at Yebin, but she slips away and makes her way over to Nayoung.

“What are you listening to?” Yebin pulls the headphones off of Nayoung and puts them on herself. “Oh my god. The Spice Girls? I didn’t think you had good taste in music, what the fuck?”

Nayoung frowns and takes her headphones back. “Can you leave me alone? I met you literally hours ago, stop acting like we’re friends.”

“We found a fucking evil spirit demon together. We have progressed well past friends,” Yebin replies. “Have you noticed any lyrics that have to do with the ouija message.”

The rest of the girls have joined them by now and Nayoung sighs, setting her headphones down on the table. The girls watch her in anticipation as she rubs her face tiredly.

“Not that I was specifically searching for anything,” she starts and Yebin makes a small victory fist pump. “It’s a dumb song and I can’t figure out how it’s related to the demon but yes. I recognized the phrase in the lyrics.”

“Hook us up, beanpole, show us what you got,” Yebin says, slapping Nayoung on the back.

Nayoung looks at her for a bit. “Yeah.”

She leaves her cart and walks over to a radio, grabbing a CD that was set aside from the racks. Minkyung nudges Yebin as they follow her, giving her a look that says ‘shut the fuck up.’ Yewon lingers to look at some soundtracks but remains close behind. Nayoung puts the CD into the radio and closes it before pressing play and skipping a few songs. The intro of the song starts playing and Kyungwon can’t help but snort.

Nayoung glares at her. “I’m helping you. Don’t laugh.”

Minkyung squeezes her eyes shut and starts mumbling softly to herself, like she’s trying to remember something that’s on the tip of her tongue.

“You have got to be kidding,” Kyungwon argues, crossing her arms. “ _Africa_ by Toto? Why the hell would a demon give us a line from that song?”

“Oh, I’m digging this,” Yebin says, nodding her head to the beat. “This evil spirit knows how to fucking party. Pull up at the club with this song and you’re golden.”

Yewon comes up beside Kyungwon, who shifts to let her in. “This is actually a pretty emotional song when you really listen to it. The harmonies are really powerful.”

Minkyung opens her eyes and she stares at the radio like it just told her to jump off a cliff. “I’m so stupid,” she says quietly. “My brother loves this song.”

Yebin and Kyungwon look at each other in bewilderment. They both know that something important just happened. They’re not sure what it is but they know it’s important. Minkyung never tells them anything. After knowing her for five years, they never knew that she had a brother. But she hears this song, this ridiculously wonderful song, and she tells them that her brother loves it. Something important just happened and Kyungwon is going to figure out what it was.

When the song finishes, Nayoung takes the CD out of the radio and puts it back in its case. “Got any theories?”

“Evil spirit can fuck with me,” Yebin says. “Let me buy this CD.”

Nayoung sighs and hands it over to her.

“I can’t figure out why the evil spirit would use that as their message,” Kyungwon says. “I mean, the whole dramatic bloody clothes and ouija wall, and the message is a lyric from a Toto song?”

Yewon takes the CD from Yebin and pulls out the lyric book. “Think about the lyrics. It’s about fighting tooth and nail to stay with someone you love. Maybe the spirit is hanging onto someone who’s still alive. They’re not ready to leave.”

“Oh, look at you. ‘I’m not the smart one’ my ass,” Yebin says, nudging her with her elbow.

Kyungwon leans back on the rack. “So, what now? We’re supposed to find out who they’re staying for? We don’t have a lot of clues here.”

“We have to go back,” Minkyung says suddenly, breaking her bout of silence. “We need to find out more.”

Yebin huffed out a laugh and pointed at Minkyung. “No, no, no. We do fucking not.”

“Tell me that you’re not curious,” Minkyung says, turning to Yebin. “This spirit might never be saved and we have the chance to help it.”

“Why are you so motivated to do this?” Nayoung asks. Minkyung blinks at her. “We’re all scared out of our minds. None of us want to die and, considering what happened last night, that’s a very real possibility. We don’t even know if it’s a good spirit. It could be pulling us into a trap.”

Kyungwon looks between the two. They’re polar opposites. Nayoung feels no need to continue this investigation - she’s actively protesting it. She has her reasons, and good reasons at that. Minkyung keeps insisting that they have to help this spirit, but she won’t tell them why. Maybe she has a good reason, maybe she just wants to do it.

“I agree with Minkyung,” Yewon chimes in, surprising all of them. Yebin frowns and moves to respond but Yewon stops her. “This spirit needs our help. We don’t know why and we don’t know how to help it, but we can’t ignore it. I can’t just keep living life like nothing is wrong when we know that there’s a soul out there that needs help. I want to go back. I have to go back.”

Kyungwon sighs. “Me too.”

“Okay, spineless, but you always blindly agree with Yewon,” Yebin points out sharply. “You would follow her if she jumped off a boat with weights tied to her feet.”

“That’s not true,” Yewon says, frowning.

“No, she’s right,” Kyungwon says.

Minkyung shifts her weight impatiently. “Nayoung. Are you coming with us or not?”

There’s a brief moment of silence as she glares at them and then she sighs. “I fucking hate you guys. My shift is almost over.”

Yebin whoops loudly, throwing an arm over Nayoung’s shoulders. “The gang’s all back together!”

“We were literally together this morning, we were never apart,” Minkyung tells her.

“Okay, but who voted you the mayor of No Fun Town? Shut the fuck up.”

 

The Grave Digger is a classic fifties diner that’s located right in the middle of town. There’s a blinking neon sign above it and it’s filled with Little Grave Lights memorabilia.

The girls are sitting in a booth near the back, a section unofficially designated as a teen hangout spot.

“We have to wait until it’s night before we go back,” Nayoung says. “It has to be dark for us to use the ouija wall, if it’s even still there.”

“What do you mean ‘if it’s even still there’?” Kyungwon asks, frowning. “Where the fuck would it go?”

“There’s a spirit there, anything could have happened,” Nayoung snaps.

Yebin pouts and grabs a french fry from the basket in the middle of the table. “I don’t want to wait, I’m hyped right now. I’ll be too tired by the time it gets dark and I’ll pussy out.”

“Well, we can’t exactly make the sun move faster, Yebin,” Minkyung drawls.

“It’s actually the Earth that’s moving, not the sun,” Kyungwon points out.

“No one fucking asked, though,” Yebin says.

“Guys, stop,” Yewon interrupts. “There’s nothing we can do but wait, Yebin.”

Yebin furrows her brow in thought before snapping her fingers and pointing at Kyungwon. “We could hold a seance.”

Kyungwon stares at her blankly. “No.”

“Come on, your mom has, like, a bunch of candles, right?” Yebin insists. “We could totally do it right now.”

“I’m not going to hold a seance with peach fucking bellini candles,” Kyungwon says. “And definitely not in my house. We already have Gertrude messing with my mom.”

“Gertrude?” Nayoung asks.

“The ghost from last April,” Kyungwon tells her. “She’s not hurting us but she never left.”

Minkyung groans and runs a hand over her face. “A seance wouldn’t work unless the spirit is in the area and I think it’s been established that the spirit is in a dinky old cottage.”

“So let’s do the seance in the cottage,” Yebin suggests. “I don’t see why this wouldn’t work.”

Nayoung sips her milkshake and shrugs. “I am not participating in a seance. If you’re going to be sitting around some candles and chanting or some shit, I do not want to be involved.”

“But Nayoung,” Yebin whines. “You’re our navigator. You found the lyrics and you yell at Minkyung. We need you.”

“I do not need to be yelled at,” Minkyung says, glaring at Yebin.

Yewon frowns a little. “Yes, you do. You’re kind of crazy.”

Yebin snorts into her drink and Minkyung smacks her.

“Well, hey, Minkyung,” Kyungwon says suddenly, leaning forward. “Your brother loves this song. Why don’t we ask him? Maybe there’s some kind of weird cult, hippie meaning behind it all that could help us out.”

All eyes are on Minkyung and she shakes her head, sinking down into her seat. “He can’t help us.”

Kyungwon looks at Yebin, who raises her eyebrows and shrugs. They’re close but not quite there yet.

“We can just hang out until it gets dark,” Yewon says, putting a hand on Yebin’s shoulder. “That way you won’t take a nap or get too tired while we wait.”

“Yeah, also, can we befriend someone that has a car?” Kyungwon asks. “I’m so tired of biking around town. We’re fucking sixteen. It’s sad.”

Minkyung looks at her tiredly. “We can’t pull another person into this mess.”

“Really? You don’t seem to feel bad at all about pulling me into this mess,” Nayoung points out. She pokes at Yebin. “This one didn’t even give me a choice.”

“Fuck off, gigantor, you’re the one who insisted on going in the house,” Yebin shoots back.

“And then I wanted to leave! We should have left!” Nayoung says.

“And we can’t go back and change any of that,” Yewon cuts them off, glaring at them. “Arguing will just make it worse.”

“Do not start talking shit about how ‘it’s trying to tear us apart’ before anything has actually happened,” Kyungwon says. “Let’s just help this fucking spirit so we can get on with our summer.”

“Ooh, I’m taking this drink from you because I swear it must be spiked if you’re yelling at Yewon,” Yebin hissed, snatching the plastic cup from Kyungwon. “You fool.”

Kyungwon sighs heavily. “Shut up, Yebin.”

“Anyways, it’s fine,” Yewon says, though the resign in her voice is obvious. “We’re all tightly wound because Yebin led us to our inevitable death by unleashing a demon. It’s understandable.”

“Oh! I defend your honor and then you turn it around against me!” Yebin says. “I see how it is.”

“Shut up, Yebin,” Minkyung groans.

Yebin lets out a noise of aggravation and crosses her arms. “Okay, what is this? National Bully Yebin Day?”

“That’s everyday,” Kyungwon informs her.

“I swear to god, Kyungwon, I will fight you right now, you fucking -”

“Yebin Kang," a new voice says, breaking up the argument. "Didn’t you see the ‘no lesbos allowed’ sign on the door?”

Yebin’s countenance immediately changes and she looks down at her fries. “No.”

Eunwoo sneers and rests her hand on her hip. “Why aren’t you all out at the drop off with everyone else? Weren’t you invited?”

“You know damn well we weren’t invited,” Minkyung snaps, her eyes narrowing. “Why aren’t you there? Were you not invited either?”

“As a matter of fact, I turned down the invitation so my dad could take me to buy a new car,” Eunwoo tells them. Se glances out the window to the mostly empty parking lot. “Looks like you guys still don’t have one.”

“Not all of us are dripping with money, Eunwoo,” Nayoung says calmly. “We’re just having lunch, it shouldn’t bother you.”

Eunwoo looks at Nayoung. “Quite a little gang you got yourself here. The lesbian hypochondriac, the homeschooled freak, the two-dollar whore, and Kyungwon. If you’re that desperate for friends, you can just come to the drop off like the rest of the normal kids.”

“The fuck you mean - you don’t have a clever little nickname for me?” Kyungwon asks. “I’m just Kyungwon?”

“I have so much shit to say about you, I really don’t think you want anything more than just your name,” Eunwoo says. Kyungwon nods and looks at Yewon, slightly impressed. Eunwoo turns her attention back to Nayoung. “You’re really pretty and smart. It’s a shame to see you murder your reputation. Come back with me.”

“Thanks but I’d rather not,” Nayoung says. She gestures for Eunwoo to leave with her drink. “Bye.”

Eunwoo blinks and Kyungwon fails at stifling her laughter. Yewon hisses for her to shut up but it makes her laugh even harder.

“Suit yourself,” Eunwoo says, sending a glare to Kyungwon. “If you ever change your mind, you’re always welcome to come by.”

She leaves and Yebin lets out a sigh of relief. Minkyung puts a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“What was up with that?” Nayoung asks, looking at Yewon. “Why did she call you a two-dollar whore?”

Yewon shrugs nonchalantly. “Someone started a rumor that I sleep with teachers to get good grades and then they started saying that I also sleep with some of the guys at school.”

“Do you?”

“Of course she fucking doesn’t,” Yebin says sharply.

Nayoung nods. “Okay.”

“God, I fucking hate Eunwoo,” Yebin continues, munching angrily on her fries. “She thinks she’s cool. It’s like she’s never been to a school assembly. Bullying isn’t cool.”

“You’re right,” Kyungwon says flatly. “We should start an anti bullying campaign at our school.”

Yebin pushes her. “Don’t make fun of me. That’s bullying.”

Kyungwon snorts. “Okay, Yebin.”

 

“Day two. Once more into the breach,” Yebin says, her voice dramatically deep. The anxiety that Eunwoo brought upon her earlier is gone. “Let’s fucking get it.”

Nayoung slides a bit and grabs a tree to stabilize herself. “You need to, like, stop talking. Forever. Effective immediately.”

“Okay, I’m recognizing this annoying, recurring motif where you guys keep telling me to shut up,” Yebin says. “You’re going to need to stop that, it’s going to get old.”

“Oh my god, whatever,” Kyungwon says.

“If you guys keep on arguing, I’m going to initiate a quiet rule,” Yewon tells them. “Your bad vibes are making it worse.”

Minkyung nods in agreement. “What Yewon says is the law. You better listen to her.”

“Fine, but only because I love my little sunshine,” Kyungwon gushes, wrapping an arm around Yewon.

Yewon laughs and pushes her off. “Stop calling me that.”

“But it’s true,” Kyungwon insists. “You’re the light of my life. The one good and pure thing left in this terrible, stinking world.”

Yebin sputters. “Excuse me? Am I not good and pure enough for you?”

“Are you joking?” Minkyung snickers. “You talk about fucking Kyungwon’s mom daily and you want to ask why you’re not good and pure?”

“I hate you,” Yebin says.

Minkyung grins and pinches Yebin’s cheek. “And I love that about you.”

Yebin snorts. “Shut up, I’m gay.”

A branch behind them snaps and they all instinctively move towards each other, Kyungwon’s hand finding Yewon’s in the dark.

“What the fuck was that?” Minkyung whispers, her hand gripping Nayoung’s jacket.

Nayoung points her flashlight in the direction of the sound and they see nothing. “Probably just an animal,” she says, but it doesn’t sound reassuring at all. “Just creeping around.”

“I’m going to fucking cry,” Yebin says. “Why do animals have to play me like this?”

“They’re animals, Yebin,” Yewon says softly. “They’re not trying to hurt you.”

There’s more rustling behind the trees and another branch cracks. Yebin nearly jumps into Kyungwon’s arms.

“Okay, maybe we should just go back,” Nayoung suggests. Her voice is wobbly. “We can come back later.”

They stand in silence, Nayoung’s flashlight flickering into the woods.

Suddenly, a body comes falling down from the trees and bounces back up, its neck bound to the tree by a rope. The body hangs limp and a cloth sack is covering its head. Kyungwon’s mantra of “ _What the fuck?”_ over and over again is overpowered by Yebin’s shrill shrieks.

Just as Nayoung pushes the rest of the girls behind her and tells them to run, the body falls to the ground. She yells out and stumbles backwards.

Yewon trips, crashing down onto the leaves, and Minkyung pulls her to her feet.

The body slowly stands up and starts staggering towards them.

Nayoung is screaming at them to run.

Kyungwon is still shrieking.

Yebin starts hyperventilating.

The girls scramble down the hill, kicking up dirt and leaves as they run away. Minkyung is practically carrying Yebin, who has become hysterical. Kyungwon turns back for a brief moment and sees the body chasing after them, pushing off of trees and sliding in the leaves.

“What the fuck is that?” Minkyung yells at her.

“I don’t know!” Kyungwon yells back.

Nayoung runs off to the side, comes back with a branch in her hands, and hits the body in the stomach. It falls back and lands on its back.

Yebin’s hand is gripping Minkyung’s shoulder so tight her knuckles are turning white and she’s wheezing, her breath coming out in ragged huffs.

“Her inhaler, get her inhaler!” Yewon says, moving to grab Yebin’s backpack. She pulls the inhaler out of the front pocket, puts it to Yebin’s lips, and presses the trigger, holding a hand on the back of her head to keep her steady.

Minkyung and Yewon worry over Yebin while Kyungwon and Nayoung look down at the body.

“Is it undead?” Kyungwon asks quietly.

“I don’t know,” Nayoung replies. “What should we do?”

Kyungwon shrugs. “I don’t know.”

It tries to get up and Nayoung whacks it again for good measure.

“Hey!”

A light shines on them and Kyungwon holds her hand up to squint at where it’s coming from.

And it’s Eunwoo, accompanied by a cackling Vernon. Nayoung drops the branch and watches as the body takes the bag off its head to reveal Seungcheol, his face contorted in pain.

“You couldn’t have picked a smaller stick?” he groans, rolling to his feet.

Nayoung walks up to him and punches him square in the face. “What the fuck was that?”

“It was just a joke,” Vernon scoffs, still grinning. “You should have seen your faces, that was gold.”

“It wasn’t funny!” Minkyung snaps. If looks could kill, Eunwoo would be dead by now. “Yebin had a fucking asthma attack! She could have died!”

Eunwoo rolls her eyes. “But she didn’t.”

“You guys need to calm down,” Seungcheol says. He climbs up the hill to stand with Eunwoo. “It was literally a joke.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Kyungwon says. “You guys are fucking crazy, this wasn’t cool. You know the forest is haunted.”

“That’s just a myth, stupid,” Eunwoo says. “People tell that to their kids so they don’t come out here. Evil forests don’t exist.”

“Why did you even follow us here in the first place?” Yewon asks. Her voice is wobbling but she’s seething.

Vernon gets a kick out of that. “Aw, baby, are you scared? You want daddy to come comfort you?”

“You want my foot up your ass?” Nayoung looks about ready to fight all three of them. Seungcheol snickers and punches Vernon in the arm. “If you don’t get out of here now, I swear, you never will.”

She glares at them as they walk away. She’s tall and powerful, and in the darkness of the forest with the wind in her hair, she’s almost terrifying.

“Are you okay?” Minkyung asks Yebin.

Yebin swallows and presses a hand to her chest. “Yeah.”

“Guys.” Yewon’s soft voice draws all of their attention. “When did we get to the cottage?”

She’s pointing her flashlight at the cottage, in its rusty, mossy glory. The ‘KEEP OUT’ sign is still at its prime.

Minkyung hesitates before running inside. Kyungwon and Yebin share another look and rush in after her. Nayoung is the last to join them inside, ushering Yewon in front of her.

“I know it’s you!” Minkyung says loudly, turning around. Her flashlight is shining all around the room and her movements are frantic. “I’m here! Tell me what to do!”

“What the fuck is she doing?” Nayoung whispers to Kyungwon.

Kyungwon makes a noise of general confusion. “Hell if I know.”

“Please, I’m here now.” Minkyung falls to her knees in front of the ouija wall. “I’m here.”

“Who are you talking to?” Yebin finally asks. “What is going on, Minkyung?”

Minkyung touches the wall. “It’s my brother.”

Kyungwon loses her shit. “Your fucking what? _”_ she yells, pulling Minkyung away from the wall. “Your brother is the evil spirit messing with us? He’s the one that sent us a lyric from _Africa_ by fucking Toto? You knew this the whole time and you just decided that you didn’t want to tell any of us? We’re all scared shitless! We thought we were going to die, Yebin thought we were going to get eaten by Tim Curry! This is all because of your fucking brother?”

Minkyung whirls on her and she stumbles back a couple steps. “What do you know about anything? You have no idea what my life was like! Five years and none of you know!”

“Well, now would be a great time to enlighten us,” Yewon says. She steps forward and puts her hand on Minkyung’s shoulder. “We can’t help you unless you let us.”

Minkyung breaks down.

“Why did you have to yell at her?” Yebin asks quietly. “She’s fucking crying.”

“I was upset,” Kyungwon replies. “And confused and angry.”

“You guys are terrible friends,” Nayoung says. She pushes through them and kneels next to Minkyung, putting her arm around her. “It’s okay. We won’t hurt you. It’s going to be okay.”

 

Minkyung is sixteen. She’s been sixteen for nine years. When they met her during the summer before sixth grade, she had cloaked herself - she grew up again with them at her side. She came to Little Grave Lights in the summer of 1989 with her twin brother, Mingyu. Mingyu was always the better one. He was tall, tan, and handsome. He was a bit of a klutz but he was sweet and smart.

He had a three year old Subaru XT coupe and they had packed enough supplies for four days of camping. They stopped at the Grave Digger for lunch and asked the waitress if she knew any good hiking trails. She was young and pretty at that time, in her early twenties. Minkyung still sees her around the diner, only now she owns it.

The residential area where Yebin lives used to be a part of the forest. Her house sits on the top of the hill that they had hiked up. The hiking trail ends at a cliff, the drop off where Eunwoo and her gang hang out now. It used to be a small patch of gravel with a skinny tree growing in the middle.

Minkyung can still clearly remember when they reached the drop off. Her backpack was heavy on her shoulders and she was sweating. Mingyu got there before her and he had tossed his backpack to the foot of the tree before going too close to the edge and letting out a shout of triumph. Minkyung grinned and set her backpack down next to his.

“Did you bring the camera?” Mingyu asked, turning to look at her.

 _“Did you bring the camera?”_ Minkyung mocked him, doing a poor imitation of his voice. “What the hell else would I bring a backpack for?”

Mingyu didn’t let her sarcasm affect his happiness and just held out his hand for her to hand it to him. The camera wasn’t anything fancy, just a blocky old polaroid.

Mingyu pulled Minkyung to stand next to him and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. As he held the camera out to face them, Minkyung pressed her smiling face against his and put up a peace sign.

Mingyu pressed the shutter button and it flashed at them. They took a couple more pictures and then they sat down to eat the sandwiches that Mingyu had packed for them.

“When we’re done with school,” Mingyu said, “I’m going to travel and I’m going to hike through all the famous forests. Yosemite, the Appalachian mountains, Hawaii, New Zealand. I want you to come with me.”

Minkyung laughed. “Oh, no. No. I do not like hiking.”

“But you like nature,” Mingyu pointed out. “Days in the wilderness. We could work for National Geographic.”

“I’m going to become a writer,” Minkyung said. She picked the tomatoes out of her sandwich. “I write novels. Not articles about volcanoes.”

Mingyu sighed. “Well, whatever we do, promise that we’ll stay together.”

“You think I’d ever leave a klutz like you alone?” Minkyung retorted. “Hell, I’d be surprised if you made it five feet without tripping and breaking your face. That would be a real shame, considering it’s the one thing you’ve got going for you.”

“Sometimes people ask me if I wish I was an only child,” Mingyu said. “I’ve always said no but now I might think twice.”

Minkyung laughed and pushed his shoulder. “Shut up, trash mouth.”

The next two days were a mystery. Minkyung couldn’t remember a bit of what they did until the third day. Mingyu woke her up in the middle of the night and motioned for her to keep quiet. They could her stomping outside the tent and something growling. It was a bear, they thought. It wouldn’t hurt them, maybe take some food, and then leave.

The noise stopped and they stared at each other with matching expressions of terror. Mingyu, always the braver of the two, unzipped the tent opening. Mist wafted into the tent and they couldn’t see a thing outside.

That’s when it got them. Minkyung still isn’t sure what it even was. It was too foggy to tell. She knows that it was huge and slimy, and had rows and rows of sharp yellow teeth.

It tackled her first and she screamed, pushing it away with her hands. The teeth scraped up her arms and blood ran down, staining her shirt.

Mingyu body slammed it and it fell off of her. She got to her feet and started backing away, watching as Mingyu wrestled with the mist.

“Go!” he yelled at her.

Minkyung was close to crying. “I’m not going to leave you!”

“You have to!”

He fell to the ground and it hovered over him, slobber dropping into his face.

“I’ll come back,” Minkyung said. “I promise. I’ll come back for you.”

She ran back down the trail, tripping over rocks and hardly packed dirt. The open wounds on her arms were burning and sticks were scratching her legs but she most painful thing was the regret. Her brother, half of her soul, half of her life, was dying. She had left him.

The mist eventually thinned out and she could barely make out where she was going in the dark.

And then she tripped over something and went down hard, her face smashing into the ground. She pushed herself up to her knees and when she turned to see what she had tripped on, a scream clawed its way out of her throat.

It was her own body, lying mangled and broken at the foot of the hill. There was no doubt that is was her, the shirt, the shorts, the shoes, they were all hers. The worst part, the horrifying part that she could never forget, was how all of the life had been drained from her body. It couldn’t have been more than a day that she was dead, but it looked like it had been weeks.

Minkyung ran back through Little Grave Lights, across the bridge, and didn’t look back.

Until one day, four years later, she remembered her promise. She came back to Little Grave Lights. She met three small girls: one with an inhaler and a mouth that worked quicker than her brain, one with long legs and a shameless laugh, one with a bright smile and yellow bruises. She made a new family. She grew up again with them at her side.

 

“You don’t believe me,” Minkyung says.

The girls are staring at her, all with varying degrees of bewilderment in their faces. Kyungwon can’t bring herself to say anything. Of everything she expected to be in this forest, a big slimy mist monster was not one of them.

“I can’t -” Nayoung closes her eyes and rubs her face. “What are you even saying? Are you dead? What’s up with your brother?”

“If you’re a ghost, how come we can see you?” Yewon asks. “Everyone in town can see you.”

“I’m not a ghost,” Minkyung says. “I’m just dead.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Yebin mumbles under her breath.

“Can we leave this fucking forest?” Kyungwon asks. “It’s obviously messing with all of us and I don’t want to wait around for whatever the hell ate your brother to get us too.”

Minkyung blinks and shakes her head. “You don’t believe me.”

“This is all just happening way too quickly,” Yebin says. “Usually, horror movies are insidious, they take longer. There’s a build up before this shit starts happening. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to think. I’m close to having another asthma attack.”

“Our life isn’t a fucking horror movie, Yebin,” Nayoung says angrily. “This isn’t a game. Tim Curry isn’t going to eat you, we’re not going to be brutally murdered by Indians, none of Stephen King’s monsters are going to come after us. Minkyung’s brother told us to listen to _Africa_ by Toto.”

“Come with me.” Minkyung gets up and leaves the cottage.

Yewon stands up and pulls Kyungwon with her. “Do you believe her?” she asks quietly.

Kyungwon shrugs. “At this point, I’m ready to believe anything.”

Minkyung takes them out of the forest. It’s about midnight and the town is silent. They don’t have the mind to keep on the sidewalk and simply walk in the middle of the street. There are no cars around anyways.

Yebin is cleaning Yewon’s face with baby wipes as they walk. There are a couple scratches from when she fell while they were running and Yebin is muttering about how dirty the forest is, that she could have gotten an infection.

Nayoung forlornly picks at the rip in her precious windbreaker and Kyungwon slowly drags her feet.

The library is closed when they get to it, but Minkyung has no problem picking the lock and ushering them inside.

“What exactly are we doing here?” Yebin asks, shoving her first aid kit back into her backpack. Minkyung turns on the lights. “Why are we back at the library?”

“Because this is where the proof is,” Minkyung says. She takes them to the section near the windows, between adult fiction and magazines, where the newspapers and town records are. “It’s been here all along, since 1989. Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”

She pulls a binder out and sets it down on a study table. After flipping through the laminated news pages, she gets to the front page of the edition of _Little Grave Lights Herald_ from July 16, 1989.

The headline is ‘ _Young Woman’s Body Found on Grave Hearts Hiking Trail.’_ Under it is a picture of what unmistakably has to be Minkyung, her rotten body exactly as she had described t.

Kyungwon feels like she’s about to be sick. She knows all about death, she knows about people who have died. Her grandmother died when she was younger and she had been present during all of the ceremonies. There was something different about this. Minkyung is standing right next to her, except she’s not. Or maybe she is. Kyungwon has no idea what’s going on but she can see clearly that her friend, her best friend, is dead. She’s been dead. All these years and none of them knew. They played in the river together, they snuck into the movie theater, they spent hours at the arcade, countless sleepovers, birthday parties. She was there when Yewon told them about her dad, when Yebin came out, when Kyungwon got on the varsity volleyball team, when Yebin decided she wanted to learn how to play the drums, when Kyungwon snapped her arm falling from a tree, when Yewon learned how to ride a bike.

But she wasn’t really there, this isn’t her life. She lost her real life nine years ago.

“Okay.” Yebin’s voice is high-pitched and stretched thin. “Alright. What do we do now?”

Everything Yewon has been doing lately seems to surprise the rest of them. She quietly leaves the study table and comes back with another binder, this one filled with stories written by second graders. Kyungwon recognizes it immediately

“What are those?” Nayoung asks.

“We were supposed to write short fictional stories,” Kyungwon explains. “They could be about anything, as long as we finished them.”

Yewon pulls a paper out of its sheet protector and puts it down beside the binder. “Ashley Braddock wrote _The Monster in the Mist._ This was in 1989, three months after you and your brother were killed,” she says, looking at Minkyung. “She went missing two days after we handed this assignment in.”

Kyungwon remembers when that happened. There were posters of her all around town as if everyone wasn’t already out looking for her. She was a sweet little girl from a nice family. There was no reason for her to run away, nowhere for her to go. After a year, the police declared that she was dead. Her body was never found.

“Fuck, that’s terrifying,” Yebin remarks. She leans over the table to read the story. “Oh, gross, it’s even illustrated.”

“Don’t say gross, a little kid drew that,” Nayoung says.

“Yeah, a kid like that fucking clairvoyant girl from _Children of the Corn_ ,” Yebin shoots back. “It’s scary!”

Minkyung bites her lip as she reads the story, her brow furrowed in concentration. It tells, in haphazard handwriting, the tale of a family that lived in a forest. They cleared out some trees and built a house. Everything was fine and dandy until winter came. Frostbite killed the whole family except the eldest daughter. Struck with grief and anger, she locked herself in the house and never left the forest. Since then, her soul has left her physical body but it remains in the forest, trapped in the mist. She is kept alive by feeding on anyone hopeful and foolish enough to stay in the forest. The souls of the people she eats stay forever in the forest and they can never leave until she is vanquished.

“Bitch didn’t leave instructions on how to kill it,” Kyungwon says. She flips between the two pages that are stapled together. “Thanks for nothing, Ashley.”

“Exactly, like, what are we even supposed to try?” Nayoung adds. “It’s the fucking mist.”

Yewon nudges Yebin. “Got any Stephen King references that can help us out?”

“Fuck you,” Yebin retorts, but her slight grin lets them know that it’s all good. “He did write a novella called _The Mist_ , but the mist wasn’t the monster, and the characters didn’t defeat it. And that definitely doesn’t help.”

“You guys don’t have to help,” Minkyung says.

“Yes, we fucking do,” Kyungwon counters. “You’re our best friend but this also isn’t just about you. That monster is still out there and it’ll keep killing people until someone stops it.”

“Why don’t we just sleep on it?” Yewon suggests. “Look, Yebin’s talking a mile a minute but she’s already got her tired eyes and I don’t know about you guys but I’m running on five hours of sleep from the past two days. We need some rest.”

“You jest, baby cakes,” Yebin says. “Check your watch. It’s only midnight.”

“That’s past your bedtime anyways,” Kyungwon points out.

“Fucking whatever.”

Nayoung herds them back out of the library and makes sure to turn the light off before closing the door.

“Where do you go at night?” Yebin asks, bumping her shoulder against Minkyung’s. “And whenever you’re not with us. What do you do?”

Minkyung shrugs. “I don’t know. I just hang out, I guess.”

“Do you sleep?” Yebin asks.

“No.”

“So, you just pretend to sleep at our sleepovers?”

“Yes.”

“Can you walk through walls?”

“No.”

“Can you float?”

“No.”

“Can you go invisible?”

“No.”

“What did you do during the four years you weren’t here?”

Minkyung hesitates to answer and Kyungwon smacks the back of Yebin’s head. “Why don’t you shut the fuck up, halfpint? Butt out of her life.”

“Fuck off,” Yebin scoffs, pushing Kyungwon away from her.

“Guys, shut up,” Nayoung groans. They quiet down but Kyungwon still sends a glare in Yebin’s direction. “Kyungwon, I’ll ban you from our adventure if you open your mouth, I swear to god.”

“I didn’t even say anything!”


	2. i want to be forever young

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah i'm posting both chapters on the same day bc i already had the whole thing finished but it was way too long to be a one shot but i didn't want to make it too many chapters  
> chapter title from forever young by alphaville

Kyungwon wakes up to her name being yelled up the stairs. She rolls out of bed and trudges her way down, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. 

It’s been a week since they found out about Minkyung. Yebin spent an entire day pestering her with questions and Nayoung spent a couple days away from them. She needed time to process everything that had happened. It took two days for them to find a haunted cottage, contact a spirit that ended up being Minkyung’s dead brother, learn about how Minkyung is actually dead, and find out that there’s an evil spirit in the forest the literally surrounded their city that kills people who go into it. There was a lot to think about and Kyungwon couldn’t blame her. 

“It’s your friend Yebin on the phone,” her mom says when she walks into the living room. 

Kyungwon nods tiredly and takes the phone to press it to her ear. “Yes?” 

“Do you know what time it is? Get your ass over to Grand right now.” Yebin’s voice is just as demanding over the line as it is in real life. 

“What are you talking about?” Kyungwon sighs. “Yebin, it’s nine in the morning, I haven’t even had breakfast yet.” 

“We both know you never eat breakfast. Listen, this is actually really serious. Grab Slim Jim and your bike and come to the alley behind Brewport.” 

The line goes dead and Kyungwon puts the phone back into the receiver. 

“Mom.” No response. “Mom!” 

“What?” her mom yells back. 

“I’m going to hang out with Yebin!” 

Her mom pokes her head into the living room from where she’s cleaning bean sprouts in the kitchen. “Don’t you want to change out of your pajamas first?” 

“I never changed into them in the first place,” Kyungwon says. “See you later, love you.” 

“Love you.” 

Kyungwon gets her bike from the side of the house and then goes to knock on Nayoung’s door. It’s opened by someone that is not Nayoung. Kyungwon stares at the man blankly. His look is haphazard at the best, his shirt littered with stains and a nearly empty bottle of beer in his hand.

“Who are you?” she asks.

The man looks down at her groggily. “Who are you?” 

“I asked first,” Kyungwon says. 

“I asked second -”

Nayoung pushes the man to the side and back into the house before turning to Kyungwon and leaning against the door casually. “What’s up?” 

“Who was that?” Kyungwon asks, leaning to peer into the house. 

“My uncle,” Nayoung answers. 

Kyungwon nods. “Looks nothing like you.” 

“I know. I’m way too pretty to be related to him,” Nayoung replies. 

“That was so greasy, you’re spending too much time with Yebin,” Kyungwon snickers. “Which, by the way, she said to meet her in town. You got a bike?” 

“Yeah. Your mom gave yours back?” Nayoung puts on her shoes and opens the garage. 

“Nah, I just took it,” Kyungwon says. 

Nayoung gets her bike and closes the garage. “Wow, look at you, a real delinquent. Did Yebin say what was going on?” 

“No. She just said it was serious and called you Slim Jim,” Kyungwon says, shrugging. 

Nayoung rolls her eyes. “Minkyung is taller than me. She never makes fun of her for being tall.” 

“Yeah, but she’s in love with Minkyung,” Kyungwon says. “Also, Minkyung is dead.”

Nayoung looks at her. “Shut up.” 

This is nice, Kyungwon thinks. The past week has only been a week but it feels like it’s been years. She had years to build up her friendships with the other girls, but only two days with Nayoung. So far, all she’s got from Nayoung is that she’s strong, she’ll protect them with her life, she’s beautiful, and she takes no shits from anyone, especially Yebin. It’s quality and good enough for her to become a staple part of the group but it’s not a lot. 

She knows Nayoung is also into volleyball. Kyungwon had started playing volleyball when she was in middle school because she was already pretty tall. She guesses that that’s also why Nayoung plays. They’re both tall. Maybe Minkyung played volleyball too. 

Nayoung is good for them. Without her, there really isn’t a firm voice of reason. Yewon could be but she gives more friendly suggestions than orders. Nayoung is harder about it. Kyungwon doesn’t know where they’d be if she hadn’t come along with them that first night. 

“Look who it is! The Jolly Green Giant and Horse Teeth!” Yebin exclaims when they come into view. “Our friendly neighborhood superheroes, just in time!” 

“Shove a sock in it, fart face,” Kyungwon says and Yewon laughs. “What’s going on?” 

Minkyung hands a paper to Kyungwon. It’s wrinkly, like it was crumpled up and then flattened back out, and the top corners are frayed. It’s a missing persons poster that was ripped off a wooden telephone pole. 

The picture is of a girl with long brown hair, sharp cheekbones, and a beautiful smile. Eunwoo Jung is written in bold capital letters underneath. Age: 16. Height: 5’6”. Weight: 105 lbs. Kyungwon feels like she’s going to be sick. 

“What the hell is this?” Nayoung asks. Kyungwon gives her the poster but doesn’t say anything. Nayoung barely reads it before shoving it back into Minkyung’s hands. “Is this some sort of joke? Is she doing this to fuck with us again?” 

“I don’t think she is,” Yewon says. She points across the street to the library park where a group of people are gathered. “Look at her parents. It looks like Vernon and Seungcheol are missing too.” 

“This can’t be right,” Nayoung argues. “Why do they think they’re missing? It’s summer they could be just out somewhere living it up.”

Yewon shakes her head. “Eunwoo told her friends that they’d be at the drop off right when they finished pranking us. They never showed up, never went home. No one knows where they went, no one’s been able to contact them.”

“Fuck,” Kyungwon mutters, rubbing her face. 

“Fuck,” Nayoung repeats. 

“Guys, we need to look for them,” Yebin says. Her tone is confident but the way she’s looking at them is pleading. “That’s a search party, right? We have to help.” 

“They’re dead,” Minkyung speaks for the first time. She’s calm and it’s terrifying. “They’re not going to find anything but dead bodies, drained of life.” 

“Maybe they’re like you,” Yebin keeps trying. “Maybe they became ghosts and we can still save them. We have to at least try.”

“Why do you care so much?” Kyungwon asks, narrowing her eyes. “All Eunwoo ever did was make your life miserable.” 

“That doesn’t mean she deserved to be killed and eaten by a mist monster!” Yebin shouts. She’s almost crying at this point and it breaks Kyungwon’s heart. Yebin is the loudmouth, the support, the lifeline, the constant smile that never gets tired. Yebin is falling apart. “We’re the reason they were in the forest in the first place! It’s our fault!” 

“They’re dead,” Minkyung says again, louder this time. “We can’t help them.” 

“Not with that fucking attitude.” Yebin stuffs Eunwoo’s missing person poster into her backpack. “You got out. There’s a chance that they did too. You pulled us on a wild goose chase for your brother. Don’t act like this is any different.” 

Minkyung tries to grab her arm, but Yebin pushes her away and runs across the street to join the group of people gathered at the park. 

“You guys are fucking idiots,” Nayoung states. “I can’t believe you thought we could defeat a fucking mist monster.” 

She leaves them to follow Yebin. 

Kyungwon looks at Yewon and then Minkyung. Minkyung looks wrecked. They already know that she’s dead, but she still somehow looks worse. She hasn’t been herself recently and that’s entirely understandable. Kyungwon’s sure she would be off her game if she was dead. 

“What if she’s right?” Yewon says, putting a hand on Minkyung’s shoulder. “What if we can save them?” 

Minkyung lets out a deep breath and leans into Yewon’s touch. “Those are just ‘what if’s. If the mist got them, there’s nothing we can do.” 

“What makes you so special?” Kyungwon asks. Minkyung looks up at her, confused. “You got out. Sure, you died, but you’re still here. Mingyu was taken by the mist monster. Why weren’t you?” 

Minkyung takes a moment. “Because he saved me.” 

“Because Mingyu was there for you,” Kyungwon says. “There were three of them. Maybe one of them sacrificed themselves like Mingyu did. Maybe the others are still here, just like you. You can’t really think that you’re the only one who’s been able to escape the mist monster.” 

“And maybe by helping them, we would also be helping Mingyu,” Yewon suggests. “Maybe they’re able to open some doors on how we can defeat it.” 

Minkyung laughs weakly. “You guys want to add a couple more ‘maybe’s in there?” 

They join the others at the library park and Nayoung throws an arm around Yewon’s shoulders.

“Okay, thank god you guys are here because I’m going to be honest, I really wasn’t planning on doing anything without you,” Yebin says, clapping Minkyung on the back. 

Minkyung snorts. “Fucking pussy.” 

“You’re right! You’re right,” Yebin agrees. “You’re right.” 

“Are we actually going to join this search party?” Yewon asks. 

“I think we should look for them,” Minkyung says. “But not with the search party and not without a plan.” 

“And weapons,” Yebin adds. 

Kyungwon squints at her. “Why the fuck would we bring weapons?” 

“The fucking mist monster!” Yebin replies. “We need to be prepared.” 

“Wait,” Nayoung says, holding a hand up. “This may be a leap because Minkyung’s experience is the only knowledge we have to go off on but it seems like we can interact with it if we’re already dead.” 

Yebin’s eyes widen. “Oh, fuck. What if you’re right? We gotta die to be able to see it?” 

“Minkyung is already dead,” Yewon supplies. She looks at her. “You have to be our medium if that’s the case.” 

“Yeah. Sure,” Minkyung says, shrugging. 

Kyungwon sputters. “Are you kidding - that was the most noncommittal ‘sure’ I have ever heard.” 

“What do you want from me? You want me to give you a little cheer, cross my heart and hope to die? I’m already dead, Kyungwon.” 

Yewon laughs and Kyungwon groans, rolling her eyes. “Shut up.”

 

“What about fire? What if we just burned the fucker?” Yebin suggests. They’re walked through the forest, retracing the steps that they took that night. “Or, like, silver. That kills werewolves. I have a silver bullet souvenir that I got from Knott’s Berry Farm before I moved here. Anyone got a gun?” 

“I have a slingshot,” Kyungwon says. 

“You’re going to slingshot a silver bullet into fog?” Nayoung asks flatly. “Exactly what is that supposed to achieve?” 

“It’s going to kill the fucking mist monster,” Yebin replies, frowning. “Bitch.” 

Minkyung kicks at a pile of leaves. “I mean, it’s worth trying.” 

“And what if it doesn’t work?” Yewon asks. “We’re going to ask for it to wait a while so we can come up with another plan to kill it?” 

“Nah, we just whack it to death with this trusty metal bat that I brought,” Yebin says, brandishing it like a sword. “I named it Rena.” 

“Why?” Kyungwon asks, not unkindly. She’s genuinely curious. 

Yebin shrugs. “I don’t know. It just sounded pretty.” 

“Sounds like Xena,” Yewon remarks. “Like the warrior princess.” 

“Aw, heck yeah,” Yebin says, grinning. “I’m a fucking warrior princess.” 

“You’re fucking pain in my ass,” Nayoung says. 

Yebin is about to respond but there’s loud rustling behind them and Yewon screams when a hand grabs her shoulder. Yebin acts on impulse and smashes the person in the face with her bat. 

Nayoung yanks her back. “Yebin!” 

“What the fuck?” Kyungwon crouches down. “Eunwoo?” 

“Oh, shit,” Yebin says. She winces and leans forward. “Sorry.” 

Eunwoo presses the heel of her hand against her head. “Yeah.” 

“What are you doing here?” Nayoung asks. “The whole town thinks you’re missing, you have to get back to your parents.” 

“I can’t,” Eunwoo says. Her snarky disposition from last week has left completely. She isn’t here to bully them, she’s not trying to play a prank or a joke. She’s eerily calm despite having been hit in the face by a bat. She seems almost sad. 

“Look at this shit!” Yebin pulls the missing person poster out of her backpack and shakes it in Eunwoo’s face. “Why the hell can’t you go back into town?” 

Eunwoo looks at Yebin. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” 

Nayoung laughs bitterly. “Oh, I think we would.” 

“You don’t have to sound so fucking condescending,” Kyungwon says quietly. “She’s probably dead.” 

“She called Yewon a two-dollar whore, Kyungwon, I don’t really care if she’s dead,” Nayoung replies. 

Minkyung gives them a look and moves to crouch beside Yebin. “Why can’t you go back?” 

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Eunwoo says. It’s obvious that she’s dodging the question. “I hate you. You hate me. Why are you trying to help?” 

Yebin grins. “Leverage. You’re not allowed to talk shit about me anymore.” 

Kyungwon kicks Yebin lightly. “Guys, she’s fucking dead, can you chill?” 

“What?” Eunwoo is staring at Kyungwon with wide eyes. “What did you say?” 

“Good going,” Yewon mutters and Kyungwon rolls her eyes. “Oh, come on. Don’t do that.” 

“How did you know I’m dead?” Eunwoo asks, still watching Kyungwon with bewilderment. “I never said -”

“You knew?” Minkyung interrupts. Eunwoo nods. “How did you know?” 

“I think I would know if I died,” Eunwoo says, a hint of annoyance in her tone. “What do you guys even know about this?” 

“We can talk about that later,” Minkyung says. Loud voices come up from over the hill and she pulls Eunwoo to her feet. “They can’t see you. Come on.” 

“I can’t walk,” Eunwoo says. Her voice is tight and high pitched. “My leg.” 

They look down and Kyungwon almost has to turn around and vomit. Eunwoo’s pants are ripped at the knee and her left leg is covered in blood. A bone is breaking through the skin, stained red. Fleshy meat is surrounding it and it’s pink and squishy. Yewon hides her face in Kyungwon’s neck and Kyungwon rubs her arm. 

“That’s so nasty,” Nayoung remarks. “Holy shit.” 

“How’d you get to us if you can’t walk?” Yebin asks.

“I fucking crawled,” Eunwoo replies. 

Yewon grimaces. “Gross.” 

Minkyung drags Eunwoo down the familiar route through the trees and the other girls are close behind. Their procession isn’t very quiet but the search party is making enough noise on their own. They can’t hear a thing. Nayoung is the last one to slide into the cottage before pulling the door closed. 

“What is this place?” Eunwoo asks. 

Kyungwon pushes the bloody clothing around with her foot. “Our little hangout spot where we contact demons.” 

Eunwoo seems like she isn’t sure what to say. “Um. Who’s clothes are those?” 

“Yeah, we’re not sure,” Yebin says, shrugging. “They’ve always been here. I think the demon just put them there to scare us, there’s no real meaning behind it.” 

“It’s not a demon, you guys, it was Mingyu that we were talking to,” Yewon corrects them. 

Eunwoo only looks more confused. “Who’s Mingyu?” 

“Minkyung’s dead brother,” Yebin answers. 

“You’re joking,” Eunwoo says. 

“You’re dead,” Yebin retorts. 

“Guys, can you stop being idiots for one second so we can figure out what’s going on?” Nayoung snaps. Eunwoo and Yebin quiet down. “Look, Eunwoo, we think there’s an evil spirit in this forest that’s killing people. It killed Minkyung and her brother and now it’s probably killed you, Vernon, and Seungcheol.” 

“You know about the monster?” Eunwoo asks in a small voice. She looks at Minkyung. “What is it? Why is it here?” 

“Remember Ashley Braddock in second grade?” Yewon asks. Eunwoo nods. “She wrote her story about a woman who lived in the forest and went crazy and became a monster that kills people that come into the forest.” 

“She went missing,” Eunwoo says. “It was the monster that took her, wasn’t it?” 

“Must have been,” Kyungwon says. 

Yewon grabs Kyungwon’s hand and tugs her away. “What are we supposed to do with her?” she asks quietly. “If they find her body, they’ll know she’s dead. We can’t let her go back because she’s like Minkyung now, she’s never going to age.” 

“We’ll just keep her hidden, I guess,” Kyungwon answers. “There’s not much else we can do. We’ll play it by ear until we vanquish this damn demon.” 

They turn back to the others and see that Eunwoo is showing them the details of her broken leg.

“If you’re dead, how come you get hurt like that?” Yebin asks. She looks at Minkyung. “I’ve given you so many bandaids.” 

“I don’t know, I didn’t get an orientation when I entered the afterlife,” Minkyung scoffs. “Eunwoo, tell us what happened while Yebin fixes that up.” 

Yebin rolls her eyes. “Great. Thanks for volunteering me. Why do I have to do it?” 

“You’re the one who knows what to do,” Minkyung says. “You have the first aid kit.” 

Yebin grumbles under her breath about how she hates Minkyung and kneels down beside Eunwoo, opening her backpack. 

“We were leaving you guys,” Eunwoo tells them. “Sorry about that by the way. It was really just meant to be a joke. I didn’t know you guys were actually fucking with ghosts and now that you’re helping me, I feel really bad. Anyways, we couldn’t find our way out, which was wild because we all know this forest as well as our own homes. As we kept walking, it just kept getting foggier and foggier. I mean, I don’t know, the next thing I knew, Vernon was just screaming, like he was getting murdered and when I turned to look at him, there were bees, just covering his face, his hands, his whole body. I couldn’t - I couldn’t do anything, I wanted to help him but I couldn’t move, and then he fell to the ground, he rolled around a bit, and then he stopped moving.” 

Yebin stops dabbing the wound with her wet wipes and sits back in her heels. “He died?” 

“Yeah,” Eunwoo says. “He died. And - and after that, I just didn’t think. I couldn’t think of anything to do, I just ran away. I don’t know what happened to Seungcheol, maybe if I had stayed with him it wouldn’t be like this. I should have stayed with him but I didn’t and -”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Yewon tells her, giving her a small smile. “You did what you could to save yourself. There’s no shame in that.” 

“But I didn’t save myself,” Eunwoo says, her voice thick. “I died. I tripped and, well, this happened. I couldn’t move, the fog was getting thicker, I didn’t know where Seungcheol was, I was pretty sure I was going to die. I mean, I did, but that fear. I’d never felt anything like it before. I think my life literally flashed before my eyes.” 

Minkyung nodded like she was finally seeing the light. “That’s rad.” 

“Dude, you died too. You didn’t feel that shit?” Kyungwon asks. 

“I don’t even remember how I died,” Minkyung says, shrugging. “I don’t know.” 

“Okay, I’m going to snap it back into place,” Yebin says and Eunwoo tenses up. “I know, I don’t want to either, but I have to. I need something for you to bite on.” 

Nayoung pulls her belt out of its loops and hands it to her. “Do you know what you’re doing?” 

“I watch a lot of  _ General Hospital _ ,” Yebin replies. “I can figure it out.” 

“Oh my god.” Eunwoo groans and lies back, covering her face with one hand. “I’m going to die. Again.” 

Yebin huffs out a breathy laugh. “Shut up and bite the belt. Minkyung, hold her shoulders for me.” 

Minkyung goes to help her and Kyungwon turns away, grimacing. She was never someone who got grossed out by stuff like this but the injury is so gruesome. Yewon grabs her hand and leans into her shoulder. 

There’s a sickening crack and Eunwoo lets out a muffled scream. 

Nayoung faints. 

“Fucking hell,” Yebin wheezes. She leans away and takes a puff off her inhaler. “We need to get a real doctor.” 

“What, to look at dead people?” Minkyung scoffs. “Kyungwon, are you okay?” 

Kyungwon nods. “Yeah, I’m okay.” 

“Go through Yebin’s backpack, see if you can find something we can bind this with. Yewon, try to see what you can do with Nayoung.” 

Kyungwon kneels down beside Yebin and rummages through it. “There’s nothing. Can you use my shirt?” 

“You’re going to go around shirtless?” Yebin asks incredulously. “You better watch out, I’m a lesbian predator.” 

“God, shut up, Yebin,” Kyungwon snaps. She pulls her shirt over her head and hands it to Minkyung. “I’m wearing a sports bra, it’s fine. It’s a look.” 

Yebin and Minkyung work on wrapping Eunwoo’s leg up with the shirt and Kyungwon shoots backwards to check on Nayoung and Yewon. 

“I don’t know what to do,” Yewon admits. “She’s out.” 

“Okay,” Kyungwon sighs. “Uh. What if we just. Wait?” 

Yewon nods. “Good idea.” 

 

“Oh my god, my mom is going to kill me,” Yebin says. They’re trekking back up through the woods and Eunwoo is leaning heavily on Minkyung. “She’s so going to notice that I swiped all the painkillers.” 

Nayoung, who had woken up well and snapped right back into character, gives a noncommittal grunt. “Why do you have so much of this medical shit?” 

“I have asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, my good string bean of a friend,” Yebin replies casually. “We got a ton of anti-inflammatory stuff and shit like that. I also have immunosuppressive drugs but I don’t know if that works with nasty leg breaks.” 

“Okay, back up,” Nayoung says, frowning. “You have rheumatoid arthritis?” 

“Yeah, it’s why Eunwoo calls me creaky and crackly.” Yebin says it like she’s telling them she got a B on a writing assignment, like it sucks but it’s not a big deal. “My fingers are going to look so fucked up when I get older.” 

Kyungwon snorts. “Your fingers already look fucked up.” 

“Yeah, because they spend so much time inside your mom.” 

“Shut up,” Minkyung sighs. 

“You’re just upset that you’re not getting any of the goods,” Yebin says, wiggling her fingers. 

Nayoung knocks the back of Yebin’s head. “You really need to stop.” 

They start to hear cars as they near the street and Yewon stops them. 

“What are we going to do?” she asks. “No one can see Eunwoo or this is just going to blow up right in our faces, and it’s not going to be easy to sneak around, everyone knows exactly what she looks like.” 

“I have,” Yebin says, pulling her backpack around, “a face mask, like the ones doctors wear, and a baseball cap that you can wear, also sunglasses if you want, and Nayoung can give you her jacket, and you can, like, sit on my bike so you don’t have to walk.”

“You don’t think people are going to notice an unfamiliar girl wheeling around town wearing an obvious disguise?” Kyungwon retorts. “People are going to be stopping us the whole way to your house and eventually someone’s going to tell my mom and then we’re all going to be in a shit ton of trouble.” 

Yebin rolls her eyes. “Why don't you come up with a better idea?” 

“Oh, no, I can’t. I’m not smart,” Kyungwon says. 

“Maybe if we just go really quickly, we can make it, like, we just fucking blast,” Minkyung suggests. 

Eunwoo groans. “Just get me out of this forest.” 

Yewon and Kyungwon go up to the railing first. It’s a slow day, it’s always a slow day, but the highway is exceptionally barren today. Kyungwon swings her legs over the rail and lands on the street before helping Yewon over too. 

“There’s no way we can get back to town without someone noticing us,” she says. “A car is bound to head out at some point, they’re going to stop and ask us what’s up.” 

“I can lie our way out of it. No big deal,” Yewon says. She leans back over the rail. “It’s all clear, guys, you can come up.” 

Nayoung and Minkyung struggle to get Eunwoo onto the street and they work on covering her up. In the end, she just ends up wearing Nayoung’s jacket and the baseball cap. They set her on the back of Yebin’s bike, and then they’re off to get back into town. A good amount of people are milling around, some kids are dicking around outside the arcade, and others are just going around doing their everyday work. Kyungwon and the gang with their bikes are a common occurrence, have been since they were eleven, so no one really thinks to look at them twice. She feels that God must be on her side today. 

Nayoung and Kyungwon live on a street in the lower part of town. Their families are pretty well off but they’re not super rich. Yebin lives in the upper part of town. Her house sits on a hill that overlooks the town in one direction and the forest in the other. Her family is super rich. 

They come to a stop in front of her house and Kyungwon sees Nayoung gaping at it. It’s huge and beautiful and it’s hard to believe that the tough and rumble Yebin Kang lives there. 

“Kyungwon, come inside with me,” Yebin says. “My mom likes you the best, you can back me up on whatever story we’re making up.” 

Kyungwon lets her bike fall and follows Yebin into the house. Entering Yebin’s house is like entering another world. Outside, you’re in Little Grave Lights, Maine in the United States of America but as soon as you walk through the doors, it’s like you’re back in South Korea. Kyungwon doesn’t speak much Korean with her parents but she knows a good amount. Yebin’s mom only speaks Korean. She’s a small lady but she’s powerful and extremely intimidating. She’s a lot like her daughter. 

“Yebin, what are you doing at home?” Mrs. Kang calls from her spot in the living room. She’s watching Korean daytime dramas. “I thought you were out with your friends.” 

“Just stopping in for some snacks, Ma,” Yebin replies. They go into the kitchen and she opens up the medicine cabinet. “Don’t take any prescription drugs, just over the counter.” 

Kyungwon starts grabbing all the pill bottles she can get her hands on while Yebin grabs bandages and hydrogen peroxide. 

“Go get some clothes too, I’ll take care of this,” Kyungwon tells her. “And get another bag.” 

Yebin nods. “And Minkyung says I should get a utility belt instead. What a fool.” 

“Oh my god, are you still hung up on that?” Kyungwon groans. “You’re so dumb.” 

Yebin just gives her a smile and runs up the stairs to her room. Kyungwon stuffs as much as she can into the backpack and turns around to see Mrs. Kang standing in the doorway of the kitchen. 

“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” she asks, flabbergasted. 

Kyungwon glances at the door and leans back on her heels. “It’s, uh, really hot today.” 

Mrs. Kang isn’t convinced. “It’s seventy-eight degrees.” 

“Well, you know us Northerners,” Kyungwon tries awkwardly. “Can’t handle the heat.” 

“Take this sweater,” Mrs. Kang says, shoving one into Kyungwon’s arms. “You can’t go around town like that.” 

“Sure. Thanks, Auntie.” 

Yebin barrels down the stairs and grabs Kyungwon’s arm, pulling her out the door. “Bye, Ma!” 

They stumble back into the street where the rest of the girls are sitting on the curb and Kyungwon pulls the sweater on. 

“Where can we go so my neighbors don’t see us doing this right here in front of God and gays?” Yebin asks. 

Nayoung sighs. “My house. No one really cares what I do in there.” 

“Take some painkillers real quick,” Yebin says. She takes some out of her backpack and gives them to Eunwoo with a bottle of water. “Just to make it a little better until we get there.” 

Eunwoo does as she’s told. “Thanks.” 

They start their procession back down to Kyungwon and Nayoung’s street. Yewon pulls up to ride next to Kyungwon. 

“How are you?” she asks. 

Kyungwon shrugs. “I don’t know. Just going through the motions,” she says. “What about you?” 

“I’m scared,” Yewon says. “We’ve been spending so much time in the forest. What if the mist monster comes after us?” 

“I won’t let it hurt you,” Kyungwon states. “It isn’t going to hurt any of us anymore. We’re going to fight it. We’re going to win. We have to.” 

 

“How has nobody noticed that people go missing all the time?” 

Nayoung, Yewon, and Kyungwon are back at the library, sifting through the old newspapers. Minkyung and Yebin are still back at Nayoung’s house, fixing up Eunwoo. 

“No one talks about it,” Yewon says. “I guess they just don’t want to.” 

“They’re all young, under the age of eighteen,” Kyungwon observes. She has a list of names written down on a memo pad. “Johnny Goode, fourteen, 1935. Ira Beach, ten, 1943. Adriennette Lynn, sixteen, 1967. Look at this. Maeve Merriwether, two and a half. 1984.” 

Nayoung takes the list from her and looks it over carefully. “This is so fucked up.” 

“How does a two year old get lost in the woods?” Yewon asks. “Did people not watch their kids in the eighties?” 

“I don’t know. Maybe they were busy dying from tuberculosis,” Kyungwon says, shrugging. 

Nayoung looks at her. “The tuberculosis outbreak was in the 1800s.” 

“Then they were dying of AIDs. I don’t know.” 

“Why did you think the tuberculosis outbreak was in the eighties?” Nayoung asks incredulously. “How did you get AIDs and tuberculosis mixed up?” 

Kyungwon frowns at her. “They’re very similar.” 

“No, Kyungwon. They are not very similar.” 

“They’re the same thing!” 

“They’re literally - tuberculosis is a bacterial disease in your lungs, AIDs attacks the immune system! That’s so not similar at all!” 

“Wait, guys, I think I found something,” Yewon interrupts. Nayoung and Kyungwon crowd around her to see. “Look, this was only last year. Luke and Karisa Massie.” 

“Oh, I remember that,” Kyungwon says. “Their mom was a mess.” 

“They’re still here,” Yewon says. “Maybe they know something, maybe they can help us out.”

“You’re a genius.” Kyungwon grabs Yewon’s face and kisses her on the cheek. “Call Yebin and tell her to meet us at the Massie’s house. Nayoung and I will go ahead.” 

Yewon flushes and nods. “Yeah. Okay. See you there.” 

Nayoung and Kyungwon run out of the library and mount their bikes. Kyungwon leads them through the streets. 

“What’s up with you and Yewon?” Nayoung asks. “Are you guys, um. Together?” 

The question hits Kyungwon like a punch to the gut. “I’m sorry?” 

“I mean, you guys are always holding hands and having your own little conversations,” Nayoung says. “And I noticed you guys during school. You’re always together, she’s at your house all the time. You just kissed her.” 

“We’re not - we don’t - uh,” Kyungwon stammers out. How she feels about Yewon is never really something she thinks about. She knows she loves her. She knows she would do anything to protect her. Yewon is beautiful and bright and pure and Kyungwon loves how her smile can light up the whole town. She loves how soft and kind and caring she is despite what she’s gone through. And, yeah, sometimes she wants to kiss her and hug her and hold her and never have to let go. “I don’t actually know what’s up with that. Come back to me later.” 

Nayoung laughs. “You don’t know? Do you like her?” 

“Well, yeah,” Kyungwon says. She casts a glance at Nayoung. “You’re okay with it? You don't think it’s weird?” 

“Okay, well it’s not like we’re going to have a sleepover and I’m going to braid your hair while you talk about how soft her skin is, but we’re not living in the fifties either,” Nayoung scoffs. Kyungwon is silent for a bit. “Hey, it’s okay, alright? I won’t tell anyone.” 

“It’s so weird to talk about this,” Kyungwon admits. “I actually didn’t even think about it until now. I really care about her. But I know what this town is like, it’s already hard for them to accept all the Koreans that came, I don’t think they’d be too thrilled about gay Koreans.” 

“Kyungwon,” Nayoung says, coming to a stop. Kyungwon stops beside her. “I’m gay. I’m here. They’re not going to hurt me and they’re definitely not going to hurt you. But, I mean, the mist monster? That thing could kill both of us.” 

She starts back up riding again and Kyungwon frowns after her before following. “Wow, way to make a girl feel better.” 

“No worries. I’m here all summer.” 

There are only so many people in Little Grave Lights, so it’s not hard for her to remember where the Massie’s house is. It’s a couple streets away from Yebin’s house, a big house at the end of a dead end street. Kyungwon stops in front of the house and stares at it for a bit. You can tell that whoever lives in has let themselves go. The grass is yellow and overgrown, the front porch is dusty, the windows are covered in dirt. They walk up to the door and Kyungwon rings the doorbell. The door opens after a few long moments. 

“Hello.” The girl is a year younger than them. Kyungwon has seen her around school. After her siblings went missing, she seemed to lose a lot of herself. She stopped hanging out with her friends and kept to herself mostly. “What is it?”

“Hey, Kyla,” Kyungwon says. “Can we talk to you?” 

Kyla blinks at them tiredly. “Sure.” 

She steps out into the porch and closes the door behind her. 

“You know how Eunwoo, Seungcheol, and Vernon went missing?” Kyungwon’s asks. 

Kyla’s demeanor changes immediately and her eyes grow hard. “Don’t act like you suddenly care about all the people going missing,” she snaps. “Do you know how long they looked for my siblings?” 

Kyungwon blanches. “Uh -”

“Three weeks,” Kyla says. “No one even cares anymore, they barely cared back then. They gave up without even trying. You want to ask me if I can tell you anything about how Luke and Karisa went missing to see if it connects to them? I don’t know anything. They cut off the investigation before anyone could figure out anything about it. I’m tired of thinking about it, I’m tired of waiting for them to come home. I’m sorry but I can’t help you.” 

“Kyla, this is bigger than that,” Kyungwon says. “There’s something going on that’s bigger than Luke and Karisa and Eunwoo and Vernon and Seungcheol. Something in the forest. And the people around here are brushing it under the rug, trying to act like it’s not happening, but it is. There’s something evil surrounding us.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Kyla shoots back. “I don’t have time for this.” 

Just as she’s about to leave, the other girls arrive on the lawn and clamber over to the porch. Eunwoo has the baseball cap and sunglasses on and she’s got her arm thrown over Minkyung’s shoulder to support her. 

Kyla looks at them and then back at Kyungwon. “What is this?” 

“Hi, Kyla,” Yebin says, coming up the stairs to join them. “Ooh, look at your hair. Purple dip dye is so hot.” 

“Hi, Yebin,” Kyla replies. “Thanks. Who is - who’s that?” 

“What, you don’t recognize her?” Yebin pulls off Eunwoo’s sunglasses. 

Kyla’s eyes widen and she backs up into the door. “What are you doing here? I thought you were missing.” 

“Oh, I’m dead,” Eunwoo says flatly. “So is Minkyung. The monster that got Luke got us too.” 

“A monster?” Kyla looks at them like they’re crazy. “You guys are dead? Are you serious?”

Yewon gives her Ashley Braddock’s story. “A mist monster that feeds on hopeful kids that go into the forest. It got Minkyung and Eunwoo and everyone else. It got your siblings and their souls are stuck in the forest but we can help them if we vanquish the monster.” 

“I’ll help you. I’ll tell you what you need to know but that’s it. I’m not going in the forest,” Kyla says and Yebin grins. “Don’t give me that look. This isn’t fun. Karisa went missing before Luke. The police kept telling us that she ran away but Luke knew that something took her so he decided to go looking for her. When he left, he took three things: a gun, a flame torch, and, for some reason, a little mini portable fan. He never came back. That’s all I know. You have to leave now.” 

 

The next day finds the girls stand in the hardware looking at the hunting section. Eunwoo is back at Nayoung’s house, for the sake of keeping the town as calm as it can be. Yebin picks up a swiss army knife and starts pulling out the blades. Kyungwon cautiously pokes at a bear trap. Yewon pulls Kyungwon away from the bear trap. Nayoung looks through fishing poles casually. Minkyung is at the counter trying to convince the employee to sell her a gun. 

“Come on, man, you know that kids are going missing at an accelerated rate, right?” Minkyung prods. “I need to be able to protect myself.” 

The employee eyes her carefully. “You’re sure your parents are okay with it?” 

“Absolutely. It was their idea,” Minkyung says, the lie rolling smoothly off of her tongue. 

The employee gives in and hands the shotgun over to her. Yebin walks up to the counter and puts down two flame throwers, two bear traps, lighter fluid, a leaf blower backpack, and a handful of switchblades. The employee stares at them and Yewon puts a pack of mints in the pile. 

“Is that all?” he asks. 

“And a couple cases of whatever bullets go with that gun,” Minkyung says. 

The employee starts ringing them up and Kyungwon leans back against the counter, looking at Yewon. “Are you ready?” 

Yewon laughs nervously and looks down at her feet. “Am I ever ready for anything that happens in my life?” 

“Point taken,” Kyungwon says. “But, hey, we’ll totally have something to talk about at school. So what if Jenny Fielding went to New York? We fought a fucking mist monster.” 

“Shut up.” Yewon finally has a genuine smile on her face. It’s small but it’s there. 

Nayoung grabs the leaf blower and drops a bag into Kyungwon’s arms. “See, now I’m on your side about getting someone with a car.” 

“Eunwoo has a car,” Yebin says. “But she’s dead so we’d look like assholes if we tried to use it.” 

“You’re just full of great ideas, aren’t you?” Kyungwon drawls. “Tons of shit that we can totally use.”

Yebin shrugs. “I’m an innovative genius.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Minkyung groans, pushing Yebin’s shoulder.

Yewon holds the door open and they file out of the store. Yebin stuffs in as much as she can into her backpack. Nayoung pulls the leaf blower backpack on and Minkyung puts the bear traps in the basket on the front of her bike. 

“So, now we know what Luke was trying to do to fight the monster,” Kyungwon says as they all mount their bikes. “But what are we supposed to do? We have to figure out how to get the monster to us so we can kill it. How do we do that?” 

“We need to bait it,” Yewon suggests. “Call it to us somehow, get it to come to us. I don’t know, like, we have to go in there as hopeful souls so that she’ll come.” 

“Will she come if she knows that we’re looking for her?” Nayoung asks. “I mean, what if she knows that we’re trying to kill her?” 

“She’ll try to kill us either way,” Kyungwon points out. 

“It’s me.” They all look at Minkyung. “Me and Eunwoo. We’re the ones that got away. We’re the bait. Don’t think about it too much.” 

Yebin frowns, obviously not pleased by the idea. “Minkyung -”

“We want her to come, don’t we?” Minkyung pushes. No one responds. “She’ll come.” 

 

“Oh my god, I am not putting on goggles and earplugs,” Nayoung says. 

She’s standing on her front lawn with Yebin as they work on figuring out how to use the leaf blower. 

“It says that you must always use earplugs,” Yebin says, reading from the manual. “Look, right here. Always use earplugs. And goggles to protect your eyes from debris.”

Nayoung groans in exasperation. “I’m not literally blowing leaves, I’m blowing away mist. What the fuck kind of mist debris is going to attack my eyes?”

“Nasty mist debris that has killed countless children from this town and ate Vernon alive as fucking bees,” Yebin says. “But, whatever, I mean, if you’re fine with getting that shit all up in your business, I won’t stop you.”

“Are you really trying to be passive aggressive? Do you want me to smack you? I’ll blast you with this damn leaf blower,” Nayoung shoots back. “Watch me put on goggles to protect my eyes from the debris of your fucking flesh.”

“You sure can get debris of my fucking flesh, catch my eczema flying up your nostrils.”

“What the hell - you have eczema too? How are you still alive?”

"I get my daily dose of medicine from Kyungwon's mom, if you know what I mean."

"You're so gross."

Kyungwon watches them from the porch where Minkyung sets up the flamethrowers. 

“Two people are going to have flame throwers while Nayoung has the leaf blower,” Minkyung tells her. “I nominate me and you.” 

“Why?” Kyungwon asks. 

“I don’t trust Yebin with fire and I just don’t want to see Yewon with a weapon like this,” Minkyung replies. “She should be fine with Yebin’s bat.” 

“What’s Yebin going to get?” Kyungwon asks. 

Minkyung raises her eyebrows. “The shotgun.” 

“Are you serious?” Kyungwon asks incredulously. “You just said you don’t trust her with a flamethrower but you’re going to give her a fucking gun?” 

“Do you know how to shoot a gun?” Minkyung counters. Kyungwon shakes her head. “Yebin does. She gets the gun.” 

Kyungwon watches Minkyung pour lighter fluid into the flamethrower. “So, what’s going to happen if we kill it?” 

“When we kill it,” Minkyung corrects her. “I’m not sure. I’ll move on to whatever the afterlife has in store, I guess.” 

“That means you’re going to leave,” Kyungwon says. 

“Yeah. I’m going to leave,” Minkyung says. Kyungwon takes a deep breath and looks down at her feet. Minkyung sighs and puts the flamethrower down. “Hey, it’s going to be alright. You guys are going to do great without me.” 

“I don’t -” Kyungwon shakes her head. “I know I sound like a whiny baby but I don’t want you to go.” 

“I don’t belong here,” Minkyung says, putting a hand on Kyungwon’s shoulder. “I need to leave. I promise it’ll be alright.” 

“You’re going to need a mask to protect you from the fire,” Yewon says, coming out of the house. Minkyung and Kyungwon instinctively scoot away from each other. Yewon looks at them curiously before continuing. “Nayoung’s uncle said I could use these bandanas and snowboarding goggles. I hope they don’t catch on fire on your face.” 

Kyungwon scoffs. “Great, that gives me tons of confidence.” 

“You told Nayoung’s uncle about this?” Minkyung asks, accepting the bandanas and goggles. 

“Yeah.” Yewon sits down next to her on the step. “Told him we’re going monster hunting. He says good luck.” 

“Any progress on getting Eunwoo to walking on her own?” Kyungwon asks.

“Yeah!” Yewon says excitedly. “I don’t know if dead people heal at an accelerated rate but she’s doing really well. Just kind of limps.” 

Minkyung nods. “Good. She can use the bear traps. Just fucking chuck it at the monster thing.” 

“Oh, fucking hell!” 

Nayoung grabs their attention as the leaf blower turns on at full force and she stumbles backwards. A bit of dirt picks up and blows off the lawn but she keeps it pointed up. Yebin is staring at it in awe, a grin on her face. 

“That’s so sick,” she says when Nayoung turns it off. “Let’s try the flamethrowers now.” 

“I don’t think so,” Minkyung says. “You check out the gun, get used to it. Kyungwon, learn how to use the flamethrower. I’m going to show Eunwoo how to use a bear trap.” 

She gets up and goes back into the house. Yebin looks Kyungwon with a hopeful look in her eye. 

“Absolutely not,” Kyungwon says. She picks up the flamethrower and puts it on, stepping onto the lawn. “If anyone’s getting barbecued, it’s going to be you.” 

Yebin sputters. “Are you really - you’re still making fun of me? We’re about to go fight a mist monster and you’re dissing me?” 

“Shut up, Yebin,” Nayoung and Yewon say in unison. 

Kyungwon laughs when Yebin starts pouting. “Come on, man. You get a fucking gun.” 

“Yeah, but flamethrowers look so much cooler,” Yebin insists. “Just let me try?” 

“No.” 

Kyungwon ties the bandana around her face and pulls the goggles on. “Alright. Stand clear.” 

“Yewon, grab the hose just in case something goes wrong,” Nayoung says, taking a step back. 

Kyungwon gets a firm grip and turns it on. She can feel the heat reaching an uncomfortable temperature and she can see the fire bursting out in front of her. She quickly turns it off and rips the bandana off of her face. 

“That was so wicked,” Yebin says. 

Nayoung steps down to help Kyungwon take off the flamethrower. “You think you can use that in the forest to fight it?”

“It doesn’t matter if I can,” Kyungwon mutters. She makes some adjustments to the straps. “I have to do it anyways.”

Yebin snorts. “Okay, Ms. Portent, chill. Yewon, can you get me some bottles that I can shoot?”

“Am I the only one extremely wary about this child using a gun?” Nayoung asks as Yewon goes back into the house. 

“I’m also very frightened,” Kyungwon replies. 

“Shut up, I know how to use a fucking gun,” Yebin protests. 

Kyungwon raises her eyebrows. “I know you know how. What I don’t know is if you’re any good at it.”

Yebin raises the gun, points it at Kyungwon, and pulls the trigger. Kyungwon shrieks and drops, covering her ears. She waits a second before looking up and seeing a bewildered Yewon, holding a beer bottle with its top blown off. 

Nayoung whistles and Yebin looks at Kyungwon, smirking. “I think I can handle it.”

 

The sun is setting when they ride down to Lightbreak Bridge. Kyungwon has the flamethrower on her back and her flashlight and switchblade clipped onto her belt. A bandana and snowboarding goggles are hanging around her neck for her to pull up onto her face later. Minkyung has the other flamethrower, Yebin has the gun, Nayoung has the leaf blower, Eunwoo has the bear traps, and Yewon has Yebin’s bat. They all have their own flashlights and switchblades too, and Yebin has her backpack full of supplies. 

They stand at the railing and Yebin shines her flashlight down the hill. “This is it, guys. Judgement day.” 

“Can you please stop?” Yewon says. 

“That’s not what Kyungwon’s mom was saying last -”

“We actually might die tonight, you really want your last words to be a mom joke?” Kyungwon cuts her off tiredly. 

“At least I’ll die doing what I love,” Yebin muses. 

Eunwoo looks at her. “And what would that be?” 

“Kyungwon’s mom.” 

Kyungwon knocks the back of Yebin’s head. “If the mist monster doesn’t kill you, I will.” 

“Guys, I know I pulled you into this,” Minkyung says, fiddling with her flashlight. “And I know you feel obligated to help, but if you want to turn back now, you can. Except you, Eunwoo, you’re dead, you have to stay. But the rest of you don’t have to do this.” 

“I’m not leaving you,” Yebin says immediately. “I’m in this with you till the end.” 

Kyungwon looks at Yewon, who purses her lips and nods. 

“We’re in,” Kyungwon says. 

“Core four. Hell yeah,” Yebin says. She bumps fists with Yewon. “We got this.” 

Minkyung blinks slowly. “Right. Core four.” 

Kyungwon puts a hand on her shoulder and smiles. “Nine years, Minky. Don’t try going on ten.” 

“Yeah, okay, I’m in, you can stop begging,” Nayoung says drily and Yewon laughs. “Let’s kick some mist monster ass.” 

“Ooh, that really motivated me, that was cool,” Yebin remarks, grinning. 

Nayoung tries not to smile. “Shut your trash mouth, Kang.” 

They hop over the railing, Eunwoo supported by Minkyung and Nayoung.  Kyungwon isn’t sure where they’re going but Yebin leads them through the trees with confidence. 

The sun slowly sets and darkness pulls out around them. Yewon is gripping the sleeve of Kyungwon’s jacket and Nayoung and Yebin are doing their regular shit, bickering. 

“How do you summon the fucking mist?” Yebin asks idly. “Just fucking - hey, evil mist monster lady! Square up, step the fuck up! Come fight me! I bet you’re too much of a pussy to square up, aren’t you?”

Nayoung slaps a hand over Yebin’s mouth. “You’re going to get us fucking killed.” 

Yebin rolls her eyes and pushes Nayoung away. “She’s the one that’s going to get fucking killed. I want to speed up the process so we can go to the Grave Digger and get some fries.”

“It is not that simple, Yebin,” Yewon sighs. 

“It could be,” Yebin replies. She bangs her fist on a tree. “Come on, honey, let’s see what you’re made of! Show us you’re not just a - a - fuck, what do you call a whole bunch of mist?” 

“A whole bunch of mist,” Eunwoo says. 

“Yeah, what she said, you whole bunch of mist!” 

Just as she says that, a low fog begins to roll in. Kyungwon grabs Yewon and she can hear Yebin’s breath quicken. 

Kyungwon has been trying to prepare herself for this, and she had been able to convince herself that she could do it, but now, she isn’t sure. Minkyung and Eunwoo faced it before and they died. She can’t imagine dying. She doesn’t want to. But she knows she’s not alone. She knows she has Yewon right next to her and Nayoung at her back. She has her friends to fight for, to fight with.

It takes a while for the fog to become strong. Kyungwon pulls the bandana up to cover her nose and mouth. 

“Is something supposed to be happening?” Yebin’s voice comes from somewhere on her right. “Am I - am I supposed to be feeling something?”

“Shut the fuck up, Yebin,” Nayoung snaps. 

“Okay, scold the blabbermouth, alright,” Yebin drawls. “At least I’m getting shit done.” 

A branch snaps behind them and Kyungwon whips around, holding up the hose of her flamethrower. Yewon tightens her grip on Kyungwon’s jacket. The fog dissipates just barely so that they can see each other. Minkyung looks at Kyungwon and nods. 

Be ready. 

They’re all scared. Kyungwon can feel it, and maybe the mist monster can too. Maybe she’s waiting so they’ll get psyched out even more and won’t be able to fight her. 

“Minkyung?” 

The voice is deep and smooth and Kyungwon can see Minkyung tense up. A tall young man comes into view, tan skin and a handsome face, dark, messy hair. 

“Her brother?” Yewon whispers incredulously. “Is it really him?” 

“Who else would it be?” Kyungwon replies. 

Yewon shrugs. “The mist monster messing with us?” 

“Mingyu?” Minkyung says, her voice barely audible. 

“I waited for you,” Mingyu says, stepping forward. “You said you would come back. Why didn’t you come back?” 

“I wanted to.” Minkyung sounds like she’s about to cry and maybe she is. “I wanted to, I promise, but I couldn’t.” 

“You forgot me,” Mingyu says. His eyes are blank and his voice is emotionless. “You got new friends and you forgot me.” 

“No, Mingyu, I didn’t forget you, I would never forget you,” Minkyung insists. “I’m here now, I can help you.” 

“Brownie points for showing up,” a new voice says and Vernon comes up from behind them. Kyungwon’s eyes widen and she can hear Yebin cuss under her breath. Vernon’s skin is irritated and flaking off, his voice hoarse. “But it’s too late to help us.” 

“What the fuck, man, what happened to you?” Eunwoo asks. 

Vernon grins and Kyungwon feels a chill go down her spine. “Chill, guys.You’re taking this way too seriously. Can’t you learn how to take a joke?” 

Bees start pouring out of his mouth and they all back away, Yewon letting out a scream. Kyungwon turns on her flamethrower at the same time that Nayoung turns her leaf blower on blast and the bees eventually die off. Kyungwon closes the valve and tugs the bandana down, squinting to see that Vernon isn’t there anymore. 

“Holy shit,” Yebin breathes, pressing her hand to her chest. Nayoung keeps her leaf blower on in an attempt to thin out the mist. 

Minkyung suddenly screams and they turn to find that Mingyu has a grip around her neck. Yewon immediately goes to whack at him with her bat but he doesn’t budge. 

“You forgot me,” Mingyu says calmly. Minkyung grabs his wrist to try and push him away and he tightens his grip. “You forgot about me but you’re going to join me now. And they are the ones that are going to forget you.” 

_ They are the ones that are going to forget you.  _

The words scare Kyungwon shitless. She can’t imagine life without Minkyung. She can’t imagine ever forgetting her. She can’t bear the thought that there might be a day when she won’t think about Minkyung at all. 

_ They are the ones that are going to forget you. _

“I don’t think so,” Yebin says. Mingyu barely gets a chance to look at her when she raises her gun and shoots him in the forehead. He lets go of Minkyung and Yewon pulls her back behind Nayoung. 

They watch as Mingyu staggers backwards. He blinks at them slowly and then his shape begins to change. His skin turns grimy and pale, dark black veins becoming prominent up his arms. The hoodie and jeans reduce to a tattered nightgown and his short dark hair becomes stringy blond hair hanging just past his shoulder. His face changes into the hollow and sunken in face of a woman. 

“That’s fucking gross,” Yebin mutters. 

Nayoung smacks her. “You need to stop.” 

“You don’t belong here,” the woman says. Her voice is crackly, like it’s coming out of an old radio. She looks at Eunwoo and Minkyung. “You and you stay. The others must leave.” 

Yebin grabs Minkyung’s hand. “We’re not leaving.” 

The woman smiles, revealing black teeth, and it makes Kyungwon feel sick to her stomach. “Young girls and your loyalty. You know nothing. Your friendships will not last. Betrayal is inevitable in every relationship,” she says. “Leave now and I will spare you. I will only take these two.” 

“You think you know everything?” Yebin shoots back, despite the other girls hissing at her to shut up. “You’re old and lonely and bitter. You don’t know shit about love or loyalty. You lost your family. So what? People lose their families all the time. Just because you lose someone doesn’t mean you stop living. You keep growing and you get stronger. You think it’s cool that you chill in this forest and murder kids? It’s not. It’s pathetic. And I’m going to fucking kill you.” 

She charges forward and smashes the woman in the face with the butt of her gun, pushing her backwards, and then kicks her in the stomach. The woman takes a second to recover and then lets out an inhuman shriek. She tackles Yebin to the ground and starts clawing at her face. 

The other girls watch in shock for a couple second before rushing to Yebin’s aid, attacking the woman from behind with their various weapons. 

All Kyungwon can think about is Yebin. Protect Yebin, save Yebin. It’s always been like this. The other girls were always told by their parents to protect frail, sick little Yebin. Don’t run too fast, don’t climb too high, don’t go where she can’t follow. 

This is different. This isn’t about Yebin tripping and scraping a knee. This time, Yebin is hurting. She’s screaming, she’s crying, Kyungwon can feel her pain deep in her gut. 

Eunwoo latches one of her bear traps onto the woman’s back and yanks her off of Yebin. The woman falls onto her back and Kyungwon grimaces at the squelching sound it makes. Nayoung and Minkyung go to help Yebin, who is lying motionless in the ground. Yewon and Kyungwon follow after Eunwoo, who continues her assault on the woman. Yewon eyes are watery and she has returned to holding onto Kyungwon’s jacket sleeve. 

“You okay?” Kyungwon asks breathlessly. Yewon looks at her and nods. 

“I was sixteen years old!” Eunwoo spits out in between hits. “I had my whole life ahead of me! I had parents, I had a sister, I finally got a car!” 

“You were a mean girl,” the woman hisses back. “You deserved to die.” 

Eunwoo steps onto the woman’s chest and leans down to look her in the eye. “I was sixteen. I was young. I had time to learn. What about you? You’re a mean girl. You’ve been here for centuries. You haven’t learned shit. Yebin was right,” she snaps. She reaches back and grabs the hose of Kyungwon’s flamethrower to shove the nozzle into the woman’s mouth. “Let it rip, Kyungwon.” 

Kyungwon opens the pressure valve and pulls on the trigger. The woman spasms violently on the ground but Eunwoo keeps her down. 

It takes an excruciatingly long time for the woman to stop moving. Yewon lets out a loud sigh and crouches down, holding her face in her hands. Eunwoo nods at Kyungwon and she turns off the flamethrower. The woman coughs and looks up at them and Eunwoo raises her bear trap. 

“Betrayal is inevitable in every relationship,” she says. “You will learn.” 

And then she melts into the ground, her skin eaten up by moss and grass, eventually disappearing. The mist immediately vanishes and they can see the trees surrounding them, hear the forest nightlife, feel the moonlight. 

Kyungwon takes a step back and puts a hand on Yewon’s head. “Hey, sunshine. How’re you doing?”

“I’m great,” Yewon replies softly and Kyungwon’s heart clenches. “How are you?”

“Could be better, overall very relieved,” Kyungwon says. “Glad the mist monster is dead.” 

Yewon nods. “How’s Yebin?” 

“Oh, fuck,” Kyungwon mutters. “Yebin.” 

She pulls Yewon up and they hurry over to see how she’s doing. Minkyung and Nayoung are sitting on the ground on either side of her and she’s still unconscious. 

“She got her neck,” Nayoung informs them. She has Yebin’s head turned to the side and she’s cleaning up a streak of blood running down her neck and shoulder. “Lost a lot of blood. Thank god she has a bunch of shit in her backpack.” 

“How’s her breathing?” Kyungwon asks. She kneels down next to Minkyung. “Stable?”

“Yeah,” Nayoung replies. “Where’d the lady go?” 

“I torched her,” Eunwoo says, joining them. “Holy shit, is she dead?” 

“No,” Yewon says quietly. “Just hurt.” 

Yebin suddenly breathes in sharply and tries to sit up, flailing her arms. 

“Shh, calm down, baby, you’re alright,” Minkyung says quietly, holding Yebin’s shoulders. She starts wheezing and Minkyung gives her her inhaler. “You’re okay. We killed her. We killed her.” 

Yebin coughs and takes a deep breath, setting her inhaler on the ground beside her. “‘Baby,’ huh? Finally ready to admit you love me?” 

Minkyung laughs and brushes hair out of Yebin’s faces “I admitted that a long time ago.” 

“Wow, sap alert, we sound gross,” Yebin says. She pushes herself to sit up and Nayoung holds the back of her head. “Oh, fuck, everything hurts.” 

“There’s a huge, nasty cut on your neck,” Nayoung tells her. “I put hydrogen peroxide and some bandages on it but it’s bleeding through. I think you need stitches.” 

Yebin groans. “Fuck. Get me out of this god damn forest.” 

The journey back to the bridge is almost cathartic. Kyungwon can feel all the stress and the fear of the summer rolling off of her shoulders. She’s safe, Yewon is safe, Little Grave Lights is safe. Eunwoo’s limp is practically gone somehow and Yebin has an arm thrown around Minkyung’s neck for stability. Nayoung has taken the leaf blower backpack off and is dragging it on the ground after her. 

They get to the railing and, as they’re climbing over, Eunwoo makes a sound. 

“What’s wrong?” Nayoung asks, panic creeping into her tone. 

“I can’t -” Eunwoo sounds close to crying. “I can’t get over. I can’t get out.” 

“Let me help you,” Kyungwon says. 

Eunwoo shakes her head. “No, I mean I can’t. It won’t let me.” 

Kyungwon feels her heart drop. “It’s still alive?” 

“No, it’s not,” Minkyung says. She pushes Yebin over the railing, handing her to Yewon. “That’s why we can’t leave. Our souls need to move on.” 

“No, no, no, no, no!” Yebin rushes back to the railing and tries to climb back over. “No, we won, you can stay with us!” 

“I can’t,” Minkyung says. Yewon tugs on Yebin, keeping her on their side of the railing. “It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” 

“What do you mean? We’re dying?” Eunwoo asks, her voice shaking. 

Minkyung turns to look at her. “We’re already dead. We have to leave.” 

“Fuck,” Eunwoo mutters. She leans back against a tree. “I don’t want to leave.” 

“It’ll be okay,” Nayoung assures her, patting her shoulder. “You’re going to a better place.” 

Eunwoo huffs out a bitter laugh. “Yeah. A better place.” 

“Minkyung,” Yebin says. She’s pleading at this point. “You can’t leave me.” 

“We don’t belong together,” Minkyung replies. “This is your world, not mine.” 

“I don’t want to live in a world without you,” Yebin insists. She’s on the verge of tears and Kyungwon’s heart breaks. “I can’t live without you.” 

Minkyung reaches over the railing, takes Yebin’s face in her hands, and presses their lips together firmly. Yebin stumbles forward into the embrace, bringing her hands up to grip Minkyung’s shoulders, like she’ll die if she lets go. Nayoung coughs awkwardly and they pull away. 

“You will always feel my love,” Minkyung says, resting their foreheads together. 

Kyungwon scoffs, rubbing at her eyes to keep from crying. She pulls Yebin and Minkyung into a hug. “You fuckers are making me so emotional.” 

Yewon jumps to join the group hug, pressing her face into Minkyung’s neck. “I’m going to miss you so much.” 

Minkyung leans down to press a kiss on the top of Yewon’s head. “I’ll miss you too.” 

Nayoung and Kyungwon climb over the railing after saying their final goodbyes to Minkyung and Eunwoo. 

“Don’t forget us,” Eunwoo says. 

Kyungwon grins at them and she mounts her bike. “We would never.” 

 

It’s been five months. 

Kyungwon walks into Little Grave High School and pushes through the crowd to get to her plocker. Everyone is wearing thick coats and boots. She makes it to her locker and opens it to put her jacket inside. There’s a picture taped to the inside of her locker door. It’s of her, Yebin Kang, Yewon Kim, and Nayoung Im. They’re sitting in the Grave Digger, a basket of fries in the middle of their table. They’re all squished into the booth but there’s a vacant seat next to Yebin, like someone was supposed to be sitting there. 

She pulls out her binder for AP U.S. History and her precalculus notebook and shoves them into her backpack, haphazardly zipping it up.

The locker next to hers crashes open and she turns to see Yebin trying to stuff her backpack into it. Yebin's hair is pulled up in a ponytail with a bright red scrunchie and she’s wearing tights under her skirt. Her nose and cheeks are red from the cold and her eyes are dull.

Kyungwon turns to her like she’s going to ask her a question, maybe say good morning, talk about the physics assignment, but Yebin finishes getting what she needs and leaves as quickly as she had come. 

She can just barely remember a time when Yebin would run up to greet her, a grin on her face and a joke on her tongue. They don’t talk about anything but their shared physics class now. 

Yewon doesn’t sit with her at lunch. There’s still a poster up on the cafeteria wall that displays the homecoming court. The king and queen were seniors, popular and beautiful. The junior class’s homecoming prince and princess never got around to collecting their crowns. Eunwoo Jung and Vernon Chwe’s pictures are plastered up on that wall and Kyungwon can’t bring herself to look at them. The class had thought that it would be sweet to vote them homecoming prince and princess, and it was, but Kyungwon can't help but feel like there's something not right about it. 

She watches Yewon from across the cafeteria. They stopped hanging out a couple weeks into school. Kyungwon got busy with volleyball and Yewon befriended a new girl from Los Angeles named Shannon. It was a mutual decision. They decided they were both better off this way. Kyungwon feels a pain in her chest when Shannon says something and Yewon’s face lights up as she laughs. She remembers when that laugh, those smiles, had been directed at her. When Yewon was her best friend. When Yewon was hers. 

Kyungwon sees Nayoung at volleyball practice after school. A rogue volleyball is hit out of bounds and Nayoung runs to smack it before it hits a girl sitting on the bench. The girl, who had been pulling her knee pads on, rushes to thank Nayoung. Nayoung just smiles and pats her shoulder. Kyungwon feels a nagging in the back of her head, like she can remember a time that Nayoung had protected her too, a time that Nayoung had saved her. 

Nayoung glances over and they make eye contact across the gym. Kyungwon gives a small smile and Nayoung smiles back and then the moment is over. 

Kyungwon gets home at the end of the day and goes straight to her bedroom. She sits down on her bed and stares out the window. She can see Nayoung walking up the driveway to her house. Her uncle is yelling something at her and she’s yelling back. 

Something changed over the summer, something that Kyungwon can’t quite remember. She remembers them hanging out in the woods, at the library, at the Grave Digger but she doesn’t remember why they fell apart. She still talks to Yebin about classes, she practices volleyball with Nayoung, she says hi to Yewon when they see each other. She sees Yebin and Yewon walk together in the halls sometimes, Nayoung and Yebin always sit together at lunch, she worked with Yebin on a project once, Yewon and Nayoung spend time together in student government, but it’s not the same. They’re not the same. 

A week later, Kyungwon walks into the school and is immediately approached by Yebin. 

“Hey there, hot stuff. We need to talk,” Yebin says, keeping her tone casual. “Come to the library after your volleyball practice. Bring the abominable snow lady with you. It’s really important.” 

There’s something way too familiar about this, Kyungwon thinks as Yebin walks away. 

_ We need to talk,  _ Yebin said.  _ It’s really important.  _ Kyungwon doesn’t know how she knows that ‘the abominable snow lady’ is Nayoung. She just knows, just like she knows that there’s a jagged scar behind Yebin’s ear, like she knows that Yewon has a spare bike on the side of her house. Like she knows that there’s something missing from her life. 

She does as she’s told, and after practice, she talks Nayoung into going to the library with her. When they walk in, Yebin is already at a study table with Yewon. They go to join them and Yewon immediately grabs Kyungwon’s hand. 

Kyungwon’s been here before, she can feel it in the atmosphere.

"What's this about, Yebin?" Nayoung asks tiredly. 

Yebin slams a paper onto the table and the other girls look at it curiously. It’s a missing person poster. The picture is of a girl, long, dark brown hair, bangs hanging just above her eyes, a warm smile spreading her lips. The name under it is Roa Kim. 

Kyungwon feels like she’s been punched in the stomach. 

“Who is this?” Nayoung asks. 

“I don’t know,” Yebin says. “But we know her and I - we love her. We all do, I’m sure of it. And we’re going to find her.” 

**Author's Note:**

> visit me on Tumblr @yuhaholic !!


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